Not only is the content on these "flip shop" sites lazy and plagiarized, it seems to have a high signal-to-noise ratio. The answer to a simple question is buried under unnecessary prefatory material. ("If you have ever wondered about changing your desktop wallpaper, you are not alone. Many people wonder about changing their desktop wallpaper...")
Due credit is not the only thing misplaced; the author who did the legwork is also, by virtue of their legitimate interest in their subject, a better prose stylist. Interesting, readable writing has to be more relevant to a search query than what the content farm produces.
This is tangential, but threw me off a little bit. These sites have a _low_ signal to noise ratio. A high ratio would mean that there's more "signal" than "noise", which is the opposite of the argument you're making (which I agree with).
For Google it's actually high. It seems like they still fall victim to repeating the words over and over (Method 1 for changing your desktop wallpaper: Changing your desktop wallpaper is easy using this quick method, it will quickly allow you to change your desktop wallpaper ...).
Due credit is not the only thing misplaced; the author who did the legwork is also, by virtue of their legitimate interest in their subject, a better prose stylist. Interesting, readable writing has to be more relevant to a search query than what the content farm produces.