Yes I agree with how you write it, (n number of independent notes  and another note or chain of notes to define the links between. What I have in mind is a bot that listens to any link I place on a note and informs or edits or modifies _that_ page to insert the linking note to it to build a list of notes that link to this note. This can either be in the form of direct edit or modification of that note or as a reply to it by the bot which then continues to edit that response. I am not clear on this. 

arinbasu

nostr

How does one add a backlink to a Nostr event/note?

I like your bot idea and would build on it. Direct embedding of note IDs is "chicken and egg" but I think the following might be a good way to do it:

You have a bunch of independent notes as usual. Then you have a another note or chain of notes which define the links between. Then it's just a bit of code for a client, which would need to be specific to this use case anyway, to render the notes, links and structure in a familiar way.