Is Excelling in Academics in Computer Science at UST Worth it?

After my 3 years stay in the University of Santo Tomas as a Computer Science student, I'm really starting to doubt if getting really high grades is really worth it. Of course grades are going to be one of the primary factors on which an employer might consider when hiring if you are just a fresh graduate looking for your first job, but after that first job, grades doesn't really matter anymore, based on what I've read.

Right now I'm arguing with myself whether I could use my time better on more meaning full learning that can actually help me when I start to work. Sure I could spend a lot of hours studying a minor subject that will help pull my average grade up, but I could also spend that time learning skills that I can and will use in the future such as writing clean and maintainable code. Once I learn how to write clean code, I'll be able to use that skill through out my whole career, while if I had spent that time on memorizing the dates of various historical events on the other hand, I probably would have forgotten what I "learned" after a quiz on that subject.

In UST or at least in the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences of UST, they insist on adding a lot subjects to the curriculum that, in theory, would be nice to know, but in reality, those subjects actually become a barrier to students who want to focus on the subjects that are fundamental to understanding computer science. What's worse is that they often give these kind of subjects equal weight in units to that of the more career relevant subjects so students who do want to excel academically have to give a significant amount of their study time to the irrelevant subjects just so it doesn't pull the average down. Other students (although, I can't blame them for doing it) even exploit this fact which means people shouldn't rely solely on the academic performance of a student to judge his/her skills in the industry.

Of course, you need to take everything I say with a grain of salt, I can only speculate if the curriculum in other universities are better or worse, or if this is the standard for most of the universities in the country. And surely the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences has significantly developed and produced outstanding people with its curriculum, but it is evident that there is still a lot to improve on and I hope that the institute will make some deliberate effort to do so. But right now I think it is best to just do enough to be at least a little bit above average in terms of academic performance and dedicate more time into learning skills that are practical and skills that will benefit your career in the long run.