I absolutely agree with you. I want to clarify that the area I used to work in (that put more emphasis on tempo) was VERY competitive and technically sound, so that was why tempo was a big deal, because there were a lot of players who played clean.
I actually got in a "professional discussion" with someone on my panel this year at our region audition. Someone who was clearly favoring tempo (they freely expressed this to us) but the students were simply not playing well. I was not trying to change their opinion, but just wanted them to understand that they had students who were going to advance. It would behoove them to understand that they need to do focus on accuracy.