This may apply to applications, but does not necessarily translate to life. For instance, in order to get 'points' for publishing in a paper (which is tied to my productivity and bonuses), the IF of the journal 100% matters. If I publish a bunch of case reports in low impact journals, they aren't going to matter. They also probably aren't going to get cited, and for promotion, your h-factor absolutely matters. Sure, the person with 80 papers probably is going to be cited a lot, but for argument's sake, let's say only quality papers get cited. The person with the 80 papers will only have an h-index of 3 (3 papers cited 3+ times), compared to an h-index of 7 for the other person (7 papers cited 7+ times). In that case, the latter is 100% going to be more impactful.
In terms of ERAS applications, the person with more publications is generally going to be seen as more academically productive, though people who really know about research will be able to see through a dozen case reports and will value someone who participated in an actual study more, especially if they can actually describe their study.