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to chrishirst
Search query S could have different intent. With some queries you want to find out websites about S (for example, S="statistical hypothesis testing"). These should go to pages with the most information about S (long content).
With other queries you want to find websites that ARE S. These should go to the homepage. Suppose I'm searching for "webmaster forum." I want a list of websites that ARE webmaster forums, not a discussion about webmaster forums. (or a mix of both in search results)
Likewise, if I'm looking for a "car dealer in nowhereland," the front page of a dealership's site will be the most relevant to my search, not the "about us" page that goes on and on about the company history of this car dealer in nowhereland. For established sites of this nature, proper result ranking rests on the fact that almost 100% of backlinks point to the homepage, even homepages with almost zero content then could (and should) come up on top based on the strength of relevant backlink anchor text.
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