i agree completely with your first sentence. Having distribution is just as important as the core use case of the product. In the beginning, it may actually be more important.
One of the most fascinating things about the recent explosion of the Magic service, was how Hacker News (and Product Hunt) essentially acted as a growth hack for a product that was developed in a weekend. Given that the people behind Magic were in the YC batch and probably had access to strong upvoting on Hacker News, that seems like a really good example of a growth hack (where the product is the marketing).
One of the most fascinating things about the recent explosion of the Magic service, was how Hacker News (and Product Hunt) essentially acted as a growth hack for a product that was developed in a weekend. Given that the people behind Magic were in the YC batch and probably had access to strong upvoting on Hacker News, that seems like a really good example of a growth hack (where the product is the marketing).