Yes, distortion is the second worst type of aberration. The worst is softness.
That is why when Nikon introduced their 18-200mm lens, instead of making it extremely soft like all others of the same focal-range, they made it sharper but left in a lot more severe distortion.
Distortion is particularly bad because it is impossible to correct without losing sharpness.
Correcting distortion also affects composition, so some things that were in the frame can end up cropped-out of the frame as the distortion correction involves stretching parts of the image and the results get cropped to keep the frame rectangular.
The reason distortion is better than general softness is that you at least have the option to not correct it and - of course - not make everything soft at the same time. There are plenty of subjects for which distortion is not easily noticeable.
Chromatic aberrations are annoying but generally avoidable and affect only small parts of the image. Correcting them has a very localized effect.
Vignetting is extremely annoying but, unless it is severe (1+ stops), can be correct quite easily without much detriment to image quality. You will get increased noise in the extreme corners but that is usually it. Of course, when it is above +1 stop, it can cause areas to be under-exposed while measurably withing the camera's dynamic-range. Personally, I find that 1/4 EV or less of vignetting is not noticeable on most subjects.