Why is so much attention given to the printf statement?

There are two reasons. One is that you will write printf statements very frequently and other aspects of programming will become easier for you if you feel comfortable writing printf statements. It is a good idea to become proficient at writing them now so that you can easily go on to other programming issues. The other reason is that improperly written printf statements are the source of many errors for beginning programmers. If you understand printf statements, you will substantially reduce your programming errors.