Last year almost 100,000 people solved the first part of the first puzzle. Almost 3000 people solved the last part of the 25th and last puzzle. The leaderboard has only 100 entries.
It's important to a lot of people. I get that I'm in the minority here, but I can make it on the leaderboard a lot of the time if I try. But trying to get on the leaderboard stresses me out and ruins the fun, so I instead do things like start a bit late to sabotage myself.
I still make it on the leaderboard sometimes if I get too excited about starting right away or if it's a particularly hard problem and I get lucky figuring it out. That stresses me out a bit. I'd be happier if the leaderboard weren't there.
You could always solve this problem by setting yourself an extra "day 0" challenge: write a userscript that runs on the contest website and hides all references to the leaderboard.
I still make it on the leaderboard sometimes if I get too excited about starting right away or if it's a particularly hard problem and I get lucky figuring it out. That stresses me out a bit. I'd be happier if the leaderboard weren't there.