Time to ignore Google PR?

As well as developing websites I run about 10 of my own sites and maintain about the same for others.
About a year ago I made a conscious effort to completely ignore Google PR. The time that I was spending on it went into improving my content and networking with others who "I" thought were worth networking with based on my own criteria.
After about a month or so I started seeing the benefits influence of that little green line.
Without doubt it is a hard habit to break. After years of having sites with pr1 out performing some of my pr5 sites.
After working out the factors I could find no other reason for it other than PR is like a sun bed tan, it may make you look good and gives you the feel good factor for a while but in the back of my mind I know its not doing me any good. The only good thing about high pr is others will jump hoops for some kind of link relationship.
Today I was asked by a potential client if I could get them a high google pr. I may have sounded abrupt when I replied "Why, has the pound totally collapsed and the currency of the day is google PR or the local BMW dealer excepting Google pr ranking as deposits now a days?"
After spending 20 mins explaining that I could channel quality traffic consisting of people looking for his kind of products and service. I went on to tell him how this organic traffic would grow with time and become his industries leading website. "Thats great" he said but what about that PR will that grow aswell.
Looks like he's another one who's friend of a friend knoks up websites in his spare time.