Thank you, Nigel. I believe I took the wording of John’s other post too literally.
Although I don’t consider chords to be the most important to me, without a doubt I spend much more time on chords than any other aspect of a song when I am creating a lead sheet for a song new to me. It is not uncommon for me to change chords with almost every note of the melody. I am sure that if I were a vocalist, I would spend more time on lyrics, and in that case, chords would take a back seat.