Perhaps there is no border to be defined since nearly all SEO is abuse?!
The only acceptable SEO should be "provide website content that is more relevant/interesting for the viewer".
And where is the line between "provide website content that is more relevant/interesting for the viewer" and SEO? If I realise that (to take an example from something found on Google) I could take the sentence "Identify the best customers and convert more" and rewrite it as "Marketing automation helps you identify the best customers and convert more", is that SEO because I'm intentionally adding a keyword, or is that making the content more relevant to the user by being more explicit in what I'm saying?
This does of course not imply that these things can be proven, which implies that no action can be taken. Not everything that is immoral is punishable.