The microphone configuration (the way you arrange them - where they point and the spacing between them) is the second most important thing.
The mics themselves are third most important.
And everything else is pretty much in a far distant fourth place and just needs to work correctly without causing problems.
Purely in terms of sonics, yes. But I'd argue that the practicalities of taping have also to be taken into account.
Position is often the thing we have the least control over - in open situations there are usually practical and venue restrictions to work within and when stealthing you're limited by your own height and where your ticket allows you to stand/sit. And configuration is usually a non-starter when stealthing.
Then there's size of recorder, ease of adjusting levels on the fly (or without sight of the unit), accuracy of metering, cable entry points...
You can have the best mics in the prime location in the ideal configuration but it matters not a jot if the recorder has crapped out for one reason or another.
All true. In the real world, practicalities always need to be taken into account. However, none of those practical issues change the order of importance one whit. They are simply things which we can or cannot do something about, to various degrees.
A failure anywhere sinks the ship. Every link of the chain needs to at least work properly without causing problems. But that doesn't raise the importance of a cable or battery in the overall hierarchy of which things are most important to try and get right in order to obtain the best results in any given situation.
That hierarchical list is all about determining which issues are most important, and indicates where to focus one's efforts for the greatest return.
Juggling practicalities is about how to go about achieving those hierarchical goals, a further refinement determining what is worthwhile to pursue given what is within our control.
As for practicalities and stealth, I see it the opposite way:
Stealth often makes it easier to optimize one's recording location, many times making it possible to record from positions completely unavailable for open recording. Figuring out how to get the seat you want is a practical issue. Mic configuration for stealth is very open to different configurations, it just takes imagination combined with well reasoned consideration of the specifics of the particular application. Many tapers don't really seem to think very creatively in finding improved mic configurations for open recording, so I don't find it particularly surprising that less imagination may be put towards improved stealth configs which are specifically tailored to a particular situations. Granted, doing a 10' wide A-B split is difficult, at least without a second person. Different constraints call for different tools.