I am a "music first" audiophile.
The music comes before the gear. I listen to plenty of mediocre recordings, because the music is so good.
But, lucky for me, a lot of my musical tastes seem to coincide with relatively good recordings.
Also, jut because the music comes first for me, does not mean there are times every so often, that I can't enjoy just listening to a bunch of "audiophile approved" recordings, and just listen to the gear.
The 2 modes of listening do not have to be mutually exclusive.