Well said, though I would agree it would effect CTR, I would still say most people would click #1. You're thinking as a webmaster/marketer, and not the average person. You have to remember, probably 90% of people online have little computer knowledge and just automatically click the #1 listing.
I'm sure most people dont' even read the titles, and just click the number one listing.
Imo, don't settle for outside the top 3. And if you get top 3, try to get #1.
I'm hovering around #5 for a term that gets 15,000 exacts per month and getting very little traffic from it. And it's the same with many other numerous sites I have.