Sending Traffic to PBNs

From everything I am learning about the way Google's algorithm is evolving into the future, I am growing more hesitant about building "2nd Tier" backlinks to PBNs without sending any traffic to them. We know that Google can determine the amount of traffic to a given page, so my question is....

Does Google penalize a PBN that is getting NO traffic, yet is still receiving backlinks & social signals? (since this is clearly unnatural and seems it can be easily detected)

Contrary to my SEO logic, my guess is no because not many "SEO thought leaders" are talking about this as a vital part of their backlinking strategy. But why? It's just something that seems so obvious for Google to detect.

With that in mind, does anyone have any recommendations for tools and/or tactics that involve sending high engagement traffic from various IPs to a specified website to make these "2nd Tier" backlinks to your PBN site look more natural?

I have seen some things out there, most notably from social media exchange sites such as FollowLike, that offer traffic exchanges. But I don't know how long each visitor spends on your site or whether they click thru. Then there's CrowdSearch.me, which sounds absolutely great in theory, but I have not seen any results in rankings and their email support is mediocre at best.


Any input would be greatly appreciated! I'm completely at odds because my gut tells me I should do something to cover up this seemingly obvious footprint, yet not many people are talking about this as a high priority.

Thanks,
Ethan