That is your opinion. I have mine. I happen to think it is over emphasized and that it causes a lot of unnecessary stress on most individuals. I'm not saying its unimportant. I'm not saying you shouldn't try. I'm just saying a lot of people have a mentality that they need to get a 270 to be competitive. For some people, maybe. For most, no.
Thats actually not true at all.
% of programs citing each factor in selecting applicants to interview:
LORs in specialty - 71%
Deans letter - 60%
Required clerkship grades - 62%
Step 1 - 73%
Step 2 - 61%
personal statement - 68%
Mean Importance Ratings of Factors (out of 5)
LORS in specialty - 4.2
Grade in desired specialty - 4.2
Honors in required clerkships - 4.0
Step 1 - 4.1
Step 2- 4.0
Step 1 and step 2 performance appear pretty damn equal in importance. While less schools report using it as a factor in consideration, if they do use it, its considered on the same level as step 1. And, gasp, both tests are less important than quite a few other factors when deciding to grant an interview. There are many more factors evaluated in the report itself, i just listed a few.
http://www.nrmp.org/data/programresultsbyspecialty2010v3.pdf
Again, my point is not that step 1 is unimportant. It is that it is nowhere near the only thing that people care about, which is a pretty common belief. While many people wait to take step 2 and hide their scores and bla bla bla, a lot of programs do pay attention to it. There are no blanket rules or statements that fit for everyone applying to every field, which is why I said you need to know for yourself what your goals are, where you are applying, what field, etc. In fact, what if you want to do IM? It actually lists step 2 as more important than step 1 (4.0 to 3.9, respectively). Whaaaaaat? You've been killing yourself over the wrong test! OH NOOO! Begin mind meltdown.