Does anybody know if it's just spamming a link request to sites with high PR levels related to a particular site?
The act of sending out unsolicited link requests is considered spamming. SEO Elite is not just spam. Obviously you have never used this software and you don't know what it's capable of. Almost any seo software can be used for spam, but it is not necessarily the primary function. I've used SEO Elite for about 2 years now and I am very satisfied with what it can do. I don't even use their link request e-mail feature.
I bought SEO elite a few years ago but I haven't used it very much however it's a great tool because it can show you all of your competitors backlinks.