My impression is that things are drastically different if you’re going for a top professorship vs something else, like a job at google. If you’re going for a professorship then basically nothing matters until you strike on an idea that hits it out of the park in some way. And it’s a tricky combination of technical and political fitness. Depending on your work, some schools will like you more than others.

If you’re just looking for a job in some research lab then a basic “get it done” process on an incremental result works fine.