The most important link in the chain...

Hello everyone!
Over the years, I've read numerous different opinions on what is the most important link in a system chain. Somehow, in most audio reviews, you will come up with a statement about the importance of the category of the component being reviewed. "If the source is poor in performance, nothing can be done to improve the sound", "Preamp is were everything goes in and leaves from. If preamp is incapable of letting the information flow, result shall be poor", "Power amp sends the signal to the speakers. If power amp is incompetent, so shall be the signal and, hence, the music", "No matter how good your system is, if speakers are bad, everything else is in vain" etc etc. You can see similar statements concerning interconnects, speaker cacles, power cables, filters, power etc. I've read an interview of a 70 year old audiophile with a system costing $200,000 saying that power is 50% and equipment rack is 30% of the overall performance of the system! I think you see were it is getting to...
In your opinion, which is the most important link in the chain and why would that be? If thread proves popular, we might be able to create some charts; see how the audiogoners feel and think about that issue.
Thank you all!