And so this a thought about the unrelated footer link, along with one
or two others discussed between us in the past, is probably going to
be filed into the category of "you and I will have agree to disagree
on some bits". I understand your views - but I also see a bit of the
thinking from the other side of the coin and one that I cannot fully
find fault in as I would do the same thing in their shoes. Being
honest there, though, as I don't view it unethical or unwise at all.
If the link was hidden or very lightly colored in hue, shared in a
mouse-over redirect page, or such thoughts - then yes, I would agree
that the link was unethical and harmful to the client's site.

I dont' agree that one link, even with anchor text that doesn't match
the rest of the page, will drastically harm it - the SEO hopefully
would've optimized the rest of the text/contents for the clients'
preferred keywords so density thoughts for that one link's phrasing
would be a very low percentage. I do agree that someone sharing 10 or
20 unrelated links, though, may not be helping that page's contents.

And, as you pointed out, a linking structure that is sound will help
to compensate for PR shared externally. You already know my views of
PR hording from discussions past but I don't view a good internal
linking as hording - whereas sharing external links through javascript
you know I don't wholly agree with either.

Ain't splittin' of hairs in this area of thought fun? And with all the
gray areas open to personal interpretation thrown into the kettle too!
:))