I have always been against Google and there PR algorithm....
I am a big fan of Vivisimo.com - it groups your search terms for you and all!
Check it out!
Edit:
Also wanted to throw in the fact that google has basicly become the superpower of the search engine, and because of that as you said, people worry so much about there PR. Google grades you more on the links you have then your content, but the user doesnt care about how many people link to your site, they care about the content. Balancing the 2 is a very hard thing to do, and can result in lots of money out of your pocket. Then when you do have good PR - google goes and does something like this, and no one can stop them.
Just my thought, I might be wrong :/