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I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I think that good grammar, spelling and punctuation are essential. Language is the "toolkit" of a writer, and you can't be a good craftsman unless you know how to use your tools correctly. Sure, you're going to want to "break the rules" in passages of dialogue (nobody "speaks" grammatically correct English), but it's important to know what those rules are before you start breaking them.
Another aspect is that poor grammar and spelling will simply put people off your book. I know that if I pick up a book and see, for example, "it's" where it should be "its", or "your" instead of "you're", it makes me think that if the writer hasn't bothered to get these things right, how much care has he or she taken with the actual story?
So yes, "essential" is my vote.
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