buckworks - 5:04 am on Nov 26, 2009 (gmt 0)

I'm one who firmly believes that lean, clean code is positive for SEO.

Something else to consider is that pages with efficient code will load faster and that will be good for the user experience. That's a good thing for its own sake, but it will also have indirect SEO benefits, as happy users are more likely to tell friends about the site, mention it on their blogs, and so on.