The prize in science is being cited/quoted, not publishing.

Sure, publishing on important papers has its weight, but not as much as getting cited.

That might be the "prize" but the "bar" is most certainly in publish or perisch to work your way up the early academic carreer ladder. Every conference or workshop attendance needs a paper, regardless of wether you had any breakthrough. And early metrics are most often quantity based (at least 4 accepted journal articles), not citation based.