If you are able to start the game with great resources, your production will just get better and better over time.
While you should definitely prioritize the resources that benefit your strategy, building on highly productive intersections is very important due to the exponential nature of Catan. Building settlements and cities increases your resource gathering ability, which in turn makes it easier to build. If you are able to start the game with great resources, your production will just get better and better over time. On the other hand, if you start on low production tiles you will inevitably fall further and further behind as the game progresses.