I'll agree it's important, probably the most important of the aspects of our sound we can control, but being mainly a rock listener, I feel it's the music. I don't hear many rock recordings that jump out and tell me, "Yeah, you've got it right!", but when I do, it's nice. Short of changing my preference in music, I don't feel I have many options.
Kind of a bummer, but there are enough out there that sound fantastic to make my day. The rest still sound good, but I wish they'd pay more attention to recording quality.
cheers,
Dick