It’s important for you to be able to see and read the meters easily.
Setting it too low can produce excessive noise and make a recording more difficult to mix. If the level is too high, distortion (often called “clipping”) will result. These meters are critical for setting gain, or record level. Meter design: One of the biggest differences among USB interfaces is in the way their signal-level meters are configured.
A well-made interface, even if it’s made of plastic, should survive years of use.