High link popularity by whose standards? I wouldn't personally consider ~400 links to be a high number, depending of course upon how you're coming up with that number. As you'll likely read here as soon as you do a bit more digging around the forums, if you're using Google's link: command you're asking for trouble in trying to make any assessment. It only shows a sampling of links they know about and there is little rhyme or reason to what it shows many times.
As to why the site isn't ranking well, there is a lot more that goes into getting a site to rank than simply getting a few hundred backlinks. Especially if the links are at all shaky on the Quality side of things.
Glad to help you
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