the concept of linkwheel was to get thins indexed quicker and to pass weight along the link wheel. Obviously though by linking to all your self-created content you were eventually going to get Google's attention. now Google can spot interlinked properties from link wheels.
However, creating relevant content, adding a link to your site and then linking to that content to raise the power of the link is the central idea behind it, and thats still up fro grabs, just dont create "networks" of links
