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If the new owner didn't want to publish new content, then that's exactly what I'd do. I'd look at optimizing pages that are doing well but not quite locked in, then I'd create a budget for links. I'd probably go in and look to do some interlinking as well.
It's never an either/or situation, but if I had to choose one task for a new owner of one of my sites to most greatly impact the revenue, it'd be to simply publish more content and not look back. If they have the budget to build links then I would hit pages that are doing well strategically but not get emotionally attached to the outcome. I'd hit them with the links I think they need and then move on. If I could I'd also hit every page with at least one contextual link as a default action.
In this type of publishing game I feel it's more important to cast more nets rather than to squeeze every single penny out of existing nets. Partially because you never know which posts Google is going to randomly "bless" or not.
The other reason is that this is a game of numbers, which means no single post is going to generate the kind of revenue that absolutely changes the game for you, and getting attached to that idea usually results in ruining your ROI. Many posts will do fantastic in revenue and even better with some links, but not enough to blow a 5 or 6 digit budget on for links. But that budget across the whole project, sure.
It's often about optimizing and increasing ROI by slicing off waste, and there's no better way to get into waste than to turn a single post or a handful of them into a bottomless pit of links and expenses. Tag 'em and move on. There should be a relatively infinite number of keywords to tackle, many that will take down the main keyword and every variation without any links at all (because Google just does that sometimes). The rest will earn their keep in due time.
But yeah, improving what's already there is a legitimate tactic, if there's room to squeeze anything else out, which was one of my buyer's complaints. I was already squeezing each penny so hard that boogers were popping out of presidents' noses. Everything was sewn up nicely, except the affiliate side which they wisely agreed that it wasn't worth pursuing any harder than I did, when there were so many other fish in the sea.
And sometimes the gap between the current position and the next one up just doesn't warrant the time and expense. If you can't get it done with on-page and interlinking alone, and maybe a handful of nice links, there's no point in sinking money into it unless you understand you just need to strengthen your backlink profile in general. But this site was already over DR50.