simey - 5:45 pm on Aug 8, 2007 (gmt 0)

I believe that if Google removed the toolbar then paid links would be a thing of the past, and that natural linking (which G wants) would become much more relevant.

I kinda doubt that. If the toolbar went away tomorrow, that would just lead to development of more 3rd party page/strength, site/strength, etc. tools. Some of them might even be more accurate than the toolbar!
But even if they were'nt, webmasters would just find something else to obsess over. I see people selling links and sites based on their alexa rank.