If someone compliments your typeface before your message, something has gone wrong.
Typography is not decoration. It is the speed at which someone can take in what you are saying, and everything else is downstream of that.
A measure that is too wide costs you a reader every paragraph. Line height set by eye rather than by rhythm makes a page feel heavy without anyone knowing why.
We argue about kerning because the argument is really about clarity. Nobody notices good spacing. Everybody feels bad spacing, even if they never name it.
The goal is not a typeface people remember. It is a sentence they finish.