It’s interesting because although not unimportant, the outcome I’m looking for when buying a washing machine is how well it cleans clothing. Of course price, speed, and efficiency cone into play. But I think many efficient machines do a poor job at cleaning.

Of course different people have different requirements. If you rarely have soiled clothing maybe it doesn’t matter. If you have kids and jobs/hobbies that soil clothing you may also have different expectations.

Also where you are in the world. In the USA energy is generally cheap and on many places water is plentiful. If I were in Germany where energy policy has been poorly managed I’d probably have to consider efficiency more.