I very much agree with this, but just as an aside I'd like to mention that I worked on a full stack web application as a side project and I believe that helped

I very much agree with this, but just as an aside I'd like to mention that I worked on a full stack web application as a side project and I believe that helped me land my current job at a startup. However I'd also note that I applied to a LOT of companies, and while my side project helped me land my current job, 90%+ of the companies didn't care about it. I learned a lot from my project but job hunting is a numbers game, and it's far more worthwhile to study than it is to build a side project IMO.