I completely agree. Backlinks can't and shouldn't be bought, farmed, or created. They should be acquired naturally by crafting great content that people want to share.

Targeted backlinks utilizing keywords in place of your actual name are not recommended. Google will still recognize the backlink - it just won't have targeted anchor text. If you use targeted anchor text, Google may see the backlink as spam, this is why it's not recommended.

Forums may be a better choice for you, but I would still use caution there.

Using the keyword tactic is a bad idea. Comments are meant to be personalized so using a fake name or a keyword is not recommended. UX still factors into SEO so you could be harming your site and the site you're commenting on by doing that.