Pronunciations...

Oh gosh!i am really tired...it was a longgggg day! I should have slept by now but this question is bugging me and i couldn't really sleep.
How much do "Pronunciations" matter in a person's life? Something came up today and i suddenly recalled a bigggg argument between 2 stubborn human beings...i dont definitely remember the exact identities though....Yes..these guys had a huge fight. It started with the word proNUNciation which is usually misunderstood and mis-pronounced as proNOUNciation. The two brilliant faces never came to a conclusion on this topic but i always found proNUNtiation to be more accurate. It was just as a matter of opinion....not a very strong belief or a highly charged argument. The reason i want to clarify this is, few personalities are very conscious with the way they pronounce words and rather more sensitive about how others do the same. Few know the exact origin and the dictionary explanation with additional grammatical details and the most others judge people through there own style of pronouncing. I personally dont have a right to declare them as the wrong ones...however, i could neither be specific about them being right.
I see it in this way...A phonetic transcription of a given word is obviously customized but the manner in which one can actually utter a word could be different. It is according to his or her understanding more than anything else like a customized agreement. Words can be understood to your knowledge inspite of the standard correction or acceptability.
Is this more of a schooling influence, environmental effect and the surrounding phenomenon rather than a simple individual understanding? May be...my teacher said that and i have been following her for years....thats it! She made the actual wrong impression and you never ever gave it a thought again. You never felt the need to rethink on a separate track...may be. You cannot ignore this inevitable fact of getting influenced by anybody whom you tend to follow. Some olden days when your friend said it this way and you liked the phonetic sound that the word delivered...doesn't matter if it was wrong....you still loved it! Could this be a good reason to consider?
I dont know the answer...atleast i felt better and relaxed after i tried putting my question into some shape and format....lemme sleep now...i can see a longggg tomorrow already....GN :)