Hi Danielnash,
Thanks for you shared me such a great article here.Off Page is not compulsory for High DA sites like MOZ & search Engine Journal. Because they alreay have enough traffic & link bait links. They dont need to bother about refferal links, On Page is enough to their sites. But Starting websites are different.If They don't have enough refferal links its takes long time to get rankings. So, finally my suggestion without off page also we can get rankings but its ony possible your website have enough traffic and link bait to your domain.