I’m reminded of my friend who finished up a masters in physics a couple years ago. He agonized over his marks, but he did not get a 4.0, which actually cost him a fair bit of suffering given he worked so hard.

What he did get was his master’s thesis published in an important scientific journal and invitations to present it at two pretty big-deal conferences where other presenters were either PhD candidates or postdocs.

The journal and the conference organizers didn’t care that his grades were less than perfect. They cared that he did good science. Oh, and his classmates who did get perfect marks? None of them got invited to present at a conference.

As you say, sometimes perfection is overrated.