Volatility Does Matter

On the whole "volatility doesn't matter" thing: Yes, it does.

Imagine if you had a guarantee that your stocks or silver or whatever would be worth in ten years at least what they are worth today. They can't go down.

This Is Indexed: Learning Curves
on Winding Roads

You'd probably feel more comfortable increasing your risk somewhere else. You might start a business, buy a rental property, or take a vacation.

Lower market risk makes you feel more comfortable about taking risk in other areas, and rightly so. People even pay for this privilege: it's called a put option, a form of financial insurance.

If you had a strategy that could keep you out of high-volatility periods of the market, would you use it?

That's what trend-following, a form of momentum trading, does. The market tends to have high volatility when it's going down. Momentum strategies avoid being in the market during those times.