If you can play the game you enjoy at maxed out GFX with high and stable fps, do it!

In order of importance, here is my list :

1st) Mouse and sensitivity
2nd) Monitor Hz (120Hz is the strict minimum)
3rd) FPS (120fps if 120hz = strict minimum. Ideal settings are 144hz and 144/152fps. Insane settings are 240hz and 250fps)
4th) Screen resolution (native screen res is usually the best, except on CRT, but CRTs are now things of the past)
5th) Crosshair
6th) Clearly enough visible enemy models (green keels @ ql are nice, green robots @ rflx are nice too, models with blue/red/green/whateverColor outlines @ ow are nice aswell)

- I'm now playing QL at maxed out GFX since my PC can handle it with stable 250fps even at Asylum 4v4.
- I'm playing RFLX at default lowest GFX settings, cause i'm not sure if my PC can handle 144fps stable in any situations with maxed out GFX. And by default I really mean default, I actually barely touched my cfg file, I did everything at the ingame menu.
- I was playing OW at lowest default settings with 152fps, but if I could play this game at maxed out GFX and stable 152fps, I would do it for sure.
- I'm going to play QC at lowest GFX settings, and maybe in 3-4 years when I'll upgrade my PC I'll be able to play at full GFX settings with 144/152 or even better, 240fps stable.

All the distracting effects you can remove (in older games with older engines like QL, or specific "new" games like RFLX), all the nerdy customizations you can do like changing every little detail in the game WON'T actually give you an edge over the players playing with default settings.
For some reason your eyes/brain can adapt pretty fast to basically any GFX settings even if it's set on ultra high with a lot of effects, with practice with the same config for a long enough period of time. Picmip 16 doesn't actually gives you an advantage over picmip 0 players. Like I said already, as long as you can see the enemymodel(s) clearly, with whatever method, having ultra clean config or ultra detailed one DOESN'T matter at all.

IMHO customizing every little details of the visuals is a thing of the past. Out of all the FPS games available, basically only Quake (except QC) allows you to change/alterate EVERY single little detail in your visual settings. Like I said, at the end, it's only a nerdy thing, you know, you can spend 60hours tweaking your CFG to death, nothing will make you play better than someone playing on default HIGH or default LOW settings for years. I think rapha is a good example of it, his config is pretty much standard/default/ugly, but yet he's still the best quake player of all times.

Don't underestimate muscle memory and the capacity of your brain to adapt to anything. Practice is much more efficient than tweaking your CFG to death.