It has become more important as I have evolved as a quilter AND as the numbers of those who Long arm quilt increases. By that I mean since more people either have their own LA or pay someone to quilt their tops that is the new comparison point. It seems like at least 50% of quilts that you see now are LA. The past few quilt shows I went to confirmed this for me. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but in my mind it has moved the goalposts as to what a finished quilt looks like. Buying a LA or paying someone for the service are not in my budget so I will continue to quilt my own. To answer your question, quilting design is pretty important. I don't choose the quilting design until after my top is completed, but then when I do, I try to choose something that is complimentary to the blocks, or try a motif I haven't tried before. I won't say that the meander is a cop out, its perfectly suitable for many quilts; I just find now that it's not the best motif to give a quilt a WOW factor. I am amazed by what people can quilt with a long arm, so I just try to keep up the best I can. :-)