In a general sense I tend to agree with that philosophy, that the more links you get the better off you can be... however there is a big BUT to that I think.

1. The risk of having non relevent sites linking to you might help your PR but won't help your position in the SERPS.

2. The risk of being lumped in with sites that get penalties simply because you exchange links with 'bad' sites.

3. Given the number of scamming webmasters that do exist, who buy domains by the boatload for the express purpose of cheating can have a negative effect on your own domain without you even realizing it.

4. Irrelevent links can turn a surfer off and ruin the reputation you have built up in a milisecond.

To me, my own linking philosophy is to try for links that will appeal to my surfer, that will not impact my own rappor with the surfer and above all else is relevent to my own theme & site.

It is one reason I have not linked to some sites, I mean I offer gay stories & books, linking to a site that has a splash page of Brittany Spears will not endear me to my surfers... even if that site is high PR or even linking to their gay section which still has her pic on it.

just my opinion though.
Ian