The score that matters is "did you enjoy the hunt?" Hunting is much more than making a kill and size. That said, Boone & Crockett, Pope & Young and other scoring methods were devised to recognize great animals and somewhat, the hunters that took them. It is only as competitive and obsessive as YOU make it!
To me, if you know the terms and rules of these systems it allows you to "paint a picture" of your harvest to others with a few words or a small score sheet. I think that the "gross score" tells you the most but, the other terms also help to paint the whole picture.
For instance, "he shot an 8 pt. that grossed 140, netted 120 with an 18" spread."
That means " an above average 8 pt. (most areas) that had a wide rack but was not very symetrical. Versus the same 140 gross with a net of 137. Same total, but very symetrically balanced. With a score sheet, you could just about draw the exact rack without ever seeing it!
Basically, "scoring" means as much or as little as You want it to!