I have a question-I've noticed that many websites pack their homepage with innocuous text. This usually consists of paragraph after paragraph regarding the website's theme somewhere below the fold where the reader isn't likely to even see it. Is this actually helpful?
it can be, the fact that the text is there is good for the search engines, aslong as its not hidden it doesnt really matter if the reader is "unlikely" to see it, if its there and people want to read about the site, then they can easily find the text as its actually on the page. Other practises like this include tabbed sections on the home page and scroll bars in relatively small areas
Yes I agree that it does help to have a bunch of text on your homepage and other pages. That text helps establish the page's theme so that the search engines know what the page is about. That chunk of text also likely includes various keywords that you want to rank well for. Since the search engines can see those keywords in your text, you get a small rankings boost for those keywords. Some people believe that the content to code ratio alone can help rankings.