I think you're over thinking things. Tech hiring is so random that you could have the most impressive list of projects on github, but if you get asked a single data structure question that you stumble on they might pass. Similarly, you could ace the white boarding questions, but if they check out a project of yours on github that they don't enjoy for some reason they might pass.

I would stick to doing whatever will give you the most confidence when talking to companies. If that is studying data structures/algorithms then keep doing that. If its launching a side project focus on that instead.