English translation:
is not as…as
is not like…
is no as…
Structure:
Noun + ほど + Verb[ ない ]
Verb + ほど + Verb[ ない ]
Noun + ほど + Adj[ ない ]
Explanation:
[Used to say that something is the best, or in comparison that something/someone is not as … as something/someone else]
I’m not quite sure I understand this example sentence:
人に褒めてもらえるかどうかはそれ ほど 重要では ない 。
( It is not that important whether or not you can be praised by others.)
I had originally read it as “There is nothing more important than whether you can be praised by others.”
Could someone break down for me why it means what it does?
Hey 
This is one of the best questions I have ever been asked.
Basically, if you want to say that something is of the highest degree, the best (there is nothing as), you need:
Aほど/くらい/ぐらいNoun + は + ない (for not living things)/いない (for living things)
Both ない and いない come from ある and いる, which indicate the existence of something or someone - there is ○. Negative indicates lack of existence, “there is no ○, there is nothing ○”.
On the other hand, 重要ではない means “something is not important”. The negation of the adjective.
So:
彼女ほど賢い人はいない。
There is no as smart person as she is. -> No one is as smart as she.
In this example, we deny the existence of a smarter person.
vs
ともこはなるせさんほど賢くない。
Tomoko is not as smart as Naruse is.
Therefore:
1)人に|2)褒めてもらえる|3)かどうかは|4)それ ほど|5)重要では ない 。
1)by people|2)can be praised|3)whether or not| 4)to that extent|5)is not important
It is not that important whether or not you can be praised by others.
I hope it helps!
Cheers,
Thanks so much for the awesome answer! It all makes sense!
地図形式が持つ歪みから、ロシアは世界地図上に描かれているほどほど大きくない。
I understand how the grammar point of this sentence is being used here, but I’m having a hard time making sense of the “持つ歪みから” at the start .
Probably working with incomplete information right now, but wouldn’t something like 「歪み持ちだから」read better/be more natural? Specially considering 歪み is a noun and would need だ for から.
EDIT:
So I dug a bit deeper.
すまん！ Leaving my confusion for everyone to see regardless.
Who was the ding-dong that posted this? Oh wait, it was me before working in Bunpro. 
I have a question (below), but first, an observation:
So, the explanation section for this (and many others besides) have been updated, and it is soooo much more complete and instructive! I’m loving BunPro more and more every day! Thanks to everyone involved in these new explanations!
Oh, and I guess one suggestion might be to somehow update these grammar-point-specific forum posts so that they reflect the new explanation sections? Currently, the OP has the old explanation which is much shorter and less complete. I think this is somewhat important, in the sense that if BP users are to discuss the grammar point, it doesn’t do much good if everyone reading the thread has to open up the grammar point in a separate tab and flip back and forth to reference the text of the explanation section.
Perhaps this could be maintained in an automated way, such that some forum bot automatically updates the grammar point posts whenever the source-grammar-point is significantly updated. Or, instead of fully automated, perhaps at least a ‘batch automation’ process that can be triggered/executed when the team deems it to be an appropriate time such as just before announcing a major update/milestone reached. Just an idea!
So, for reference sake, I’ll copy/paste a small, relevant portion from the newer explanation text to refer to in my question:
As can be seen in this newer explanation, the Structure section indicates that the expected/typical usage is (abbreviated) “… ほど + X［ない］” where X can be a verb, い adjective, or な adjective; and in the case of な adjectives, the ない becomes either ではない or じゃない. This is also reinforced in the Information text with “… while ない is more likely to be used after a verb, い-Adjective, or な-Adjective …”
However, the second example shown next does not seem to me to be following this form. It has “… ほどの事じゃない”, with 事 being, as far as I can tell always strictly a noun, not (for example) a な-Adjective.
So, the question(s) is/are: Is there a mismatch between the explanation in the Structure and Information sections versus this second example sentence being used to illustrate what has just been explained? Is using ほど with a noun supposed to be in this particular grammar point? Or is there a different one where it appears? Is using ほど with a noun actually more common than described? Maybe it should be included as part of this grammar point? Or maybe the example sentence should be removed to match the prior explanation (assuming it will be covered elsewhere)? Or maybe it could be moved to a Fun Fact section explaining how to use ほど with nouns, even if it doesn’t necessarily occur in the Review Sentences?
But… after reading this thread before I posted, and re-examining the second example sentence, I now have this inkling that maybe I’m not actually parsing the sentence correctly. Maybe that の in between ほど and 事 makes ほどの事 into a single noun, which then じゃない is denying the existence of?
That seems to make sense to me. But it does raise a couple of other questions: Is this how all ほど + Noun constructions should be made (for this grammar point), with ほど + の + Noun? And if so, then maybe that case could simply be added to the Structure section, as it doesn’t really seem that difficult? Or if it’s not that easy, is there a different grammar point which handles ほど + Noun + じゃない ? If not, should there be? Or is the construction really so rare that it’s not necessary?
Sorry for the litany of questions. Just not sure what the best/correct resolution to my confusion is. Just hoping we can get an even-more-clear explanation than the currently-way-more-clear-than-the-original explanation is! 