No it isn't. While it can inconvenience you for a few years you can get it back up by simply paying your bills on time and paying down debts.
Now that being the case I still don't like credit scores. You can work years, have lots of savings, pay all your bills on time, pay off cars and mortgages and have a rocking credit score. The if one medical vendor sends your $90 bill to the wrong address, you never see it, then they send you to collections you will watch your score crater. This is sadly what happened to me, it is rage inducing!
You can also easily dispute that $90 bill, and easily get it removed from your record. You'll find there's almost zero chance they're going to tangle with you over $90.
If it's a $5,000 medical bill, then they will fight you over that dispute claim.
Interesting. I had the same experience (doctor->collections; trivial amount of money) and it didn't impact my score at all. In fact, I laughed at the collections agent and told her they would never see a penny from me, as it hasn't impacted my score. That was several months ago and still no change in my score and I certainly haven't paid them.
Now that being the case I still don't like credit scores. You can work years, have lots of savings, pay all your bills on time, pay off cars and mortgages and have a rocking credit score. The if one medical vendor sends your $90 bill to the wrong address, you never see it, then they send you to collections you will watch your score crater. This is sadly what happened to me, it is rage inducing!