For me, Sound Quality matters the most by a long shot. And within the category of "sound quality" some things really matter, foremost the tonal quality of the instruments and voices. I care that they feel like they have body and color and a certain thickness to them. Lean but accurate would not make me happy.
I want a nice, simple soundstage where instruments live on the horizontal plane in some realistic way (I know the mix of the album controls this to a great degree, but if it is there, I'd like to hear it). I don't care about "3-D" imaging, holographic this or that. I find that distracting, and not musical.
I don't need components to be silent - I need them to present the music. Tape hiss is okay, and if my tube phono section has a little noise at higher volumes, that is okay with me.
After sound quality, Reliability matters to me - I don't want my system down too many days. And I need a manufacturer who communicates well, since I am not very astute when it comes to the technical parts of the endeavor.
And after that, I want gear that lets me participate, in at least a little way, in how it sounds. I want to customize it, a little. So, I want tube gear so I can try different tubes to get that sound quality I mention above. I like analog gear that lets me try new cartridges, and new settings such as VTA and azimuth. I like setting up a new aerial for my ancient tuner. But I am incompetent at soldering or even reading electrical diagrams, so only a little participation, please.
I am blessed with my own listening room, so how it looks doesn't matter very much to me.
And I love that others have very different audio values. I have a friend who lives and dies by how his system images. And it is remarkable, and I am happy that it makes him happy, and I share my admiration for how carefully he has set it up. The fact that I don't need or want the same is almost irrelevant.
David