I think that the "good evaluations will hurt your career as a researcher" meme is over-emphasized. At almost every institution in the U.S., people are wary of hiring someone who isn't an adequate teacher: it always causes pain down the line for the hiree's colleagues, as they have to deal with student complaints, possibly deans' complaints, and so on.

One should focus (at least) enough on teaching to do a reasonable job, and (hence) get reasonable evaluations. Whether you want to focus more than that depends on your own personality, career goals, and so on.