It's definitely worth exploring, and I wouldn't get caught up in having to have x amount of very goods, or anything like that. At the stage of determining for whom to battle, prioritization is the most important factor, more than preferences or even prestige. Realize that at D+ prestige, if you target a player that a B+ or higher prestige team is willing to match your effort for, you can be left out of signing range. 2 full letter grades is roughly the breaking point where even effort results in you having a small shot, or no shot.
If you have a great preference profile, it's obviously advantageous. That can definitely be the difference between having no shot, and having a small shot (and hey, a 1 in 5 chance to land a 4 star player at TCU is pretty good, right?). The trick is finding, and prioritizing the best guys top teams don't want to match effort for. Guys you are willing to start, to promise lots of minutes, to invest 20 HVs in, but that a B+ and higher team may not want that badly.