About linking
I am firmly of the belief that hard links, pipe links, and soft links are three of the things that make Everything2 great. Hard links help us to learn what terms mean or to flesh out concepts. Pipe links give us more freedom as authors and allow us to be funny. Soft links give us an idea where others went after they finished reading the current node. All of these things are wonderful.
But they aren't all necessary (well, soft links will always show up). Fiction, for example, shouldn't require clever pipe links and hard links thrown in for no reason save the status quo. To claim that they are required is tantamount to telling the writer, "You're contribution isn't good enough, and it can't stand on its own; cross-reference it with this not-quite-an-encyclopedia".
Just because the tools are available to us doesn't mean they have to be used at every opportunity. Maybe I have a sequence of nodes in mind for the reader to follow or maybe I just don't have any terms that need definition. As writers, the appearance of our nodes really ought to be our prerogative.
I've heard several times that E2 is what we make it. If I want to make some of my nodes with fewer links than average, I should be allowed to without negative repercussion. We're writers, and in my opinion, everything that isn't writing (links included) is extra and ought to be optional.