Money i s a passion of mine. I have been studying it intensely for decades and have owned whole shelves of books on the topic, and studied monetary economics at university.
It is much more important then people think - but not for the reasons you think it is not important, I would hazard a guess.
Who gets to create, distribute, and destroy money, and how, is at the basis of how civilizations work. The ability to conduct war, for instance, is based on the ability to generate money. So if that power is in the hands of unscrupulous, vain and arrogant psychopaths , as it seems to have been for quite a long time, then there will naturally be endless war - in fact, a whole economy based on war.
Money is VERY IMPORTANT.
@onceuponatime, it would seem to me that money carries importance on a lot of different levels, from the individual to the "global." In this instance, I was mostly looking at how money interacts with us at the individual level... and how some seem to sacrifice what actually makes them feel content, happy and accomplished by pursuing money, almost like it were a "God like" commodity.
Based on your study and interest in the topic, I'd defer to your expertise in terms of what money "is;" speaking from individual experience, I can share that in my younger days I was more of an "insufferable jackass" because I was more inclined to pursue money as a "thing" that was an end... as opposed to now, where I am more likely to pursue things I feel passionate about, where money comes as more of a consequence of that pursuit.
On the larger scale, one of the things that made me interested in cryptos was this idea that perhaps it would be possible to shift the center of influence away from the corrupt war mongers towards something more... idealistic and equitable that might involve versions of lasting peace and prosperity. Maybe not in our lifetimes... but somewhere (decades? Centuries?) down the road.