I definitely agree with this. In my short 3yr experience it seems that if the meat isn't tender it throws whatever good flavor you might have off. Our ribs were hitting well the first 5 events of this year and then 2 competitions in a row I screwed them up and they were not the right tenderness, but had the same flavor (rubs/sauces). Tenderness score were worse and so were taste. So I tweaked the cooking time, got them back to tender and had good ribs. Both tenderness and taste went up.
Other opinions may vary and other factors come into play, but for me if tenderness is off then my taste score will be lower.