Question about Orphan pages

Question

I am using a well known SEO tool to audit my webshop, and the tool mentions that most (all?) of my productpages are Orphan pages(no incoming links). The orphan pages supposed to be a crititcal error according to the SEO tool. 
The pages however, are in my sitemap and Google search console mentions the pages are being indexed. Is this still impacting my SEO rankings and site in general?

barryhunter · Accepted Answer

In general yes, orphaned pages, don't do very well. They lack any 'inlinks' so dont really have any page rank. 
They may technically be indexed, but don't tend to rank very well. Not to say wont rank at all, not just well. 
Sitemaps can help with discovery, and so lead to crawling/indexing. 
BUt they dont help with ranking. Proper internal, also known as organic links, can however help with ranking. 
Importantly links help users, so they can find pages. Users arent going to consult a XML sitemap. 
yes as many sites may have a 'search' function, or maybe interactive functions that bots can't crawl.
... but a 'low-fi' navigation system that works very simply can help users AND bots. 
Eg visually impaired users might struggle to use a search interface.