Do you ever intentionally "Not" rank #1 for something?

Weird question but hared someone mention once that ranking #1 for super competitive terms sometimes brings traffic
sometimes bring traffic that doesn't even convert well.
Has anyone actually experienced this or is it just a random take with no real basis like would you rather be #1
for a board term with high volume but low intent .

The same traffic sees the number 1 - 10 spots, why would number 2 get better quality traffic from than number 1? Number 2's traffic is a portion of people who bounced back from number 1 already.

Definitely! It’s better to be #1 for a low volume but high intent keyword with higher conversion rates than getting thousands of hits on a generic keyword.

Depends on the goal. For branding it can be useful, but for business I care more about leads and sales.