Always glad to offer advice. There are many different philosophies when it comes to any kind of study. I think the main reason for this is that not everyone learns the same way, and not everyone has the same objectives. It's best to find a method that helps you make the most improvement that you can for the style you want.
I feel that people need to learn chords because at least half of practical guitar playing is rhythm. I personally know about five guitarists who destroy me when it comes to playing lead, but who can't play rhythm to save their lives. The other day I was jamming with a guy, and I tried to show him a basic B7-D9-E9 blues progression, and he just couldn't get it down. He could play sweep arpeggios all day, but his strumming sounded like shit, and he didn't have much of a sense for chord changes.
Being able to play lead effectively is a great skill, and that's what I've been devoting pretty much all of my practice time to over the last year or so. But to be honest, you're going to get a lot more people interested and involved while playing Free Fallin' or Sweet Home Alabama (or whatever song) around a campfire than you will while trying to emulate a Slayer solo with no rhythm section to back you up. Shredding when done outside the context of a band and a song is like masturbation - it might be fun as hell for you, but no one besides your girlfriend really wants to watch you do it, at least not for very long.
So do both. You should always have a few songs, either covers or your own, that you can play all the way through. You want to be able to improvise over a chord progression while also being able to play a nice sounding chord progression for other people to improvise over. Guitar is one of the most versatile instruments out there, so you should really take advantage of all that you can do with it.