Does chess openings really matter if you will win or not?

So you play for 2 hours? I''m not sure I understand,( Please excuse my lack of experience)

I dont mean to be rude, but seriously???

It was a 6 hour game.  I know...incomprehensible for some.

Yes, seriously! I don't want to be rude either, but I think you didn't grasp the distinction between opening and opening theorie.

I could not play for that long, I'm too impatient. I basically only play 10 minute games. is that how long the average tournament game is?

I completely get the difference, and i understand what Feingold is saying.  The audience he is targeting in that video should be learning openings principles:

Control the center

Develop toward the center

Castle

Connect your rooks

That is opening principles. 

What low rated players are doing that he says they should not do is study openings.  Which translates to memorizing moves with no understand of "why" those moves are made.  And to make a bad situation worse.  These same players are playing openings not only poorly, but for the wrong reasons.  Every beginner/low rated player thinks they are "tactical and aggressive" so they think they are playing the Sicilian.  When in reality they are playing some moves they memorized and have no understanding of "why" they are making the moves.

Not always...The lower you go in each section the faster the games go.  The higher you go in each section, the games take longer.  That is because the ability of the players gets better, and they take their time.  One year some of us watched 2 guys play through all 3 time controls (7 hours).  Then one of t hose guys player for another 7 hours.  So 14 hours of chess in 2 games. 

You should try. It might be fun.

Why would they make the games longer for better players? I see many grandmasters playing blitz games all the time.

They dont make the games longer time control wise.  The better the player, the better they are at using their time.  They play longer.

Pre covid i used to help run scholastic tournaments.  A blind person could tell where the beginners and lowest rated sections were.  As soon as the TD would say: "Shake hands and start your clocks."  It sounded like machine gun fire.  And in a matter of 2-3 minutes games would be over, kids crying not understanding why they lost.

idk I haven't often played higher time limits. Should I?

Nope, watch the video again. He says:

»Opening don't matter. They don't matter at all. You can play a3 on move one, Ra2 on move two and if you're 1500 playing against 1500 it's irrelevant.«

That's not promoting opening principles at all. 

And that's a fact.

He was not promoting opening principles in that video.  He was saying that opening study at that level is a waste of time.  Again...he is right.  You can play 1.a4 and win at that level. 

Ok yeah once you know an opening you don't need to know many more. Just one or two defenses and you're good to go as far as openings go.

clearly a hyperbole, though.

When i was an active OTB tournament player i wanted  opponents that obsessed over openings.  Because i knew that i was 90+%sure it was going to be an easy win.  Unless i ran into one of those kid geniuses that was simply better than me.  The postmortem was usually always the same.

"You confused me because you didn't play theory."

You hung a piece.

"Yea...but that's because you didn't play books moves."

What was your game plan?

"To play the <insert opening here>."

Thats not a game plan.  But lets say I did play book moves.  What is the middlegame plan/idea for the opening you play?

<Blank stare>

No. He did say openings didn't matter, he didn't say openening study didn't matter. You seemingly didn't get that distinction after all. 

I don't really know how I should feel about this lol

It really draws a parallel between a postmortem between me and a NM. 

Me: You played Qc7. I know it's a move, but I don't know the response to it. So I figured that I should just put my rooks onto the c file to pressure your queen (it ended up being the correct plan, just too late)

Him: Well it's a reasonable plan, but you see, in the benoni white wants to break with e5 and so [these moves] are much more logical. I think you were just playing on the wrong side of the board...

Which didn't really sit well with me, but he wasn't wrong, he's higher rated, and... he won the game. So.

Well if youre not studying openings then opening study wont matter.  Again...openings at the levels he was referring to does not matter.