I agree with you here. I didn't spend much time on the specific faculty sections of my statement, and maybe I should have. I wish I knew when I started the process what I know now. I think I might have saved myself a lot of stress (and some $$$ on things like the GRE)
Even though honestly, I am still not sure how exactly this whole process works. I didn't contact any faculty at all during this process. I had no idea people did that until I joined Grad Cafe in January. Also, I got accepted to the places I put one faculty member in my statement and rejected from some where I listed four. I don't have publications or crazy gre scores...so who knows!
The one good thing about it being a little bit of a crapshoot is that everyone has a shot!