What actually makes a backlink valuable today?

Title: What actually makes a backlink valuable today?

I’ve noticed that discussions about backlinks often focus too much on metrics such as domain authority or traffic estimates. Those numbers can be useful, but they don’t tell the whole story.

For me, the more important factors are relevance, the quality of the linking page, how naturally the link is placed, and whether the website itself looks like a real resource rather than something created only for SEO.

There are platforms such as https://tier1.shop/ that make it easier to find link placement opportunities, but I still think each potential placement needs to be checked individually. A relevant link from a solid page can be more useful than several links from unrelated websites with impressive-looking metrics.

How do you evaluate backlinks today? Do you still rely heavily on DR/DA, or do you mostly look at relevance and actual site quality?