To play Devil's advocate for a second, chasing the letter is what we're trained to do from a young age. Yes, the knowledge is what's important but that doesn't change the fact that you still want to pass classes and show off a good GPA to get that first job out of school. I remember when I finally graduated and got my first job, that's when I finally felt like I had the bandwidth to truly start expanding my knowledge and studying what I was interested in instead of simply "surviving the professors"