Agreed. The only hard part is knowing what is upstream or downstream. With most of the wiring hidden in cabinets or behind drywall it can sometimes be a guessing game.
Had this problem in my girlfriends kitchen. A few of her outlets didn't work. It ended up being a loose neutral wire in an outlet causing everything downstream to be inactive also.
Backstabbling outlets should be avoided. I try to pigtail as much as I can so at least if the outlet or...