To me it depends on the style of music so its a Yes and No answer...Goodf technique is always nice to have and can help alot but you dont have to have it..I mean look at hendrix...he was a sloppy player but people loved him and his music...Like I said earlier it depends on the style...Somthing like classical music is very demanding with technique (well some of it is) and Its not very easy to get away with sloppy playing wheras if you play metal, you can hide alot of it behind distortion (Im not saying you can hide if all..like if you solo then im sure you want to have good technique so you dont sound bad)
Like I said...Its a yes and no asnwer for me