PageRank and Hot Air

Lots of people from around the blogosphere have been writing articles about how Google’s recent change in algorithm has affected their PageRank.  I’m not sure what this has to do with their business, though.

Firstly, isn’t PageRank relative?  Secondly, does a drop in PageRank change the number of people that visit their sites or the amount of revenue that a given site generates?  If I am wrong, then I guess I have a lot more to learn than I first though.  Google’s pagerank system seems to be completely relativistic in that it analyzes the perceived quality and number of incoming links to a website.  Secondly, it analyzes what kinds of sites are linking to your site.  Based on these numbers that are assigned by Google, your site gets a number.  Right now, this site is sitting at a cozy “0″, as it is a pretty new site with not many incoming links.

I would like to know though, what is the big deal about a drop in a site’s PR? As I see it, it’s just a bunch of hot air.  Am I wrong?