Many people already said that new good links can help with your penguin recovery. This seems to be confirmed now:
Barry Schwartz`s interpretation of the conversation with John Meuller:
" aggregated level across everything that we have from your website" and thus, if the algorithm tips in the favor of good links, then you are going to see a recovery "
At least it is a good thing that Google is giving more guidance on how to recover from Penguin after 2+ years....
Google: Even Without Disavowing, Getting Good Links Can Remove Your Penguin Problems