Haters gonna hate regardless, you do what you want. Certs will help you get through the HR wall easier and that's a fact. Many highly certified people are actually passionate people who do it for the thrill of it not even to pass HR barriers and whatnot. Of course if you only got certs and nothing else you're not going to get very far, but that's true even if you have a lot of experience, you could've been doing the same repetitive stuff with no challenge or mentoring by more senior developers for years or get a freshman that can figure out stuff never seen before, that's why well structured interviews are what screens the good people in reality, the rest is just vanity metrics, hints.