Just to clarify, it's not that I think the measured used to determine google
pr are unsound, it's more that I question whether them being available publicly is a good thing all in all.
I agree about people emailing in relation to links (being their intention is to buy or exchange links). I peformed a link exchange with a sports site whose domain cost them a pretty penny. They wanted me to use the plain URL, and didn't seem concerned about the lack of anchor text at all.