Welcome to the Q&A Forum

We have informational and retail websites where we put a LOT of effort into our content.   We are trying to produce the best-on-the-web.   All of this content is created and edited by people who have both formal education and deep experience in the content area. There is no way that we would allow user-generated content on these websites - even though we are not in a YMYL (your money, your life) type of industry.   User-generated content can be excellent, but a high percentage of it is deeply flawed and far, far below our editorial standards.   We have experience people in our own industry who want to submit content but we reject it because it is below our quality standards. The above is why we don't allow user-generated content based upon editorial standards. I have read information published by Google where they say that a vigorous comment section can be a sign of a quality website.  But, I believe that applies to content types where opinion, kibitzing  and prattle are acceptable.  However, medical sites (and other types of websites) are an entirely different matter.   Low quality content can result in problems for the reader - even if it is in a comments section.  Nobody knows exactly how Google views this, but I am going to protect my visitors from BS and poor-quality information.

Howdy, Well, to my understanding is that link wheel is a link wheel. No matter if you own the domains/hosting or not. If you do something spammy or potentially "illegal" in the eyes of Google, they won't care who owns the domain

Hi there. Your question is not really a question, rather your thoughts maybe? Anyway, Google News rankings are based on, yes, typical SEO signals, but, more than anything, time sensitivity, mentions and social signals. So, an article, released today, which got traction in social media (shares, retweets etc), and some links will be performing at the top. So, base your optimization on that - the more newsworthy and shareable your content is - the better results you gonna get. Hope this makes sense