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 if people praise you or not.
Can you give a literal translation for this sentence? I’m trying to figure out why もらえる is used. From the sentence it seems like it should be passive, but the dictionary says もらえる is potential form. Is this another case of the colloquial version of the passive form being used?
It’s not that important whether or not you can be praised by others.
I have changed the translation to fit it more! 
And you are right, it is potential form of てもらう construction 
As you know もらう means to receive. てもらう is used when we receive a favor, similar to English “have something done by”/“have someone do something” construction and can be translated as such both ways(and that’s why you feel passive/causative), but does not necessarily imply that we instructed people to do that. Also, it is much softer than Japanese causative 
Favor nuance.
You can think of it as the opposite of one of the Japanese passive functions, called suffering passive which is used when someone did something bad to the speaker. (https://bunpro.jp/grammar_points/145)
(in this use - dissatisfaction nuance)