Would you still play the top simming build regardless of damage?

I generally try to stick with the performers in most situations, barring a few exceptions. Generally-speaking I value performance a little over fun, but fun is definitely important.

Early in Legion Affliction had a talent called Soul Effigy. At the time I played Destruction more often, but when I was Affliction I generally did not use Soul Effigy even for recommended encounters. I will say I did find some interesting uses for it, such as funneling extra, unavoidable damage into a target in world PVP from far away, but other than that I just wasn’t too fond of the talent. But like I said it wasn’t too much of an issue because I raided and did M+ as Destruction at that time.