MHes - 9:24 am on Dec 4, 2005 (gmt 0)

Keyword stuffing is probably ignored for ranking purposes by the algo. There are many more important factors that will make pages rank high, with or without keyword stuffing.

Many topics/sectors naturally have a high density of a specific keyword. This is why keyword stuffing is probably not a factor. Try doing a site listing jobs without using the keyword 'job' a lot! It can be used quite sensibly and innocently without any seo in mind.... should those sites be reported or automatically penalised for that keyword? The same is the case with hundreds of other topics, so keyword stuffing IS IMHO NOT PENALISED by a spider.... only a human review can make a sensible judgement for keyword stuffing.

If a site ranks well and has a high keyword density, it will be because of other factors. The algo is not so simplistic as you assume and this is a red herring. Many serps have a mix of high or low density keywords in the top 10. Page design, nature of subject targeted and presentation for the user may dictate that it is legitimate to repeat a keyword....

I have used the word 'keyword' or 'Keywords' 11 times above in two short paragraphs.... without attempting to keyword stuff. Google knows this can happen so will ignore not penalise.