Does it matter much to you from which direction the prevailing winds come in the area where you live?

Not really. It changes from season to season. In the warmer months we get the southwest winds, bringing moist gulf air. We get lake breezes from Lake Erie, which sometimes brings heavy snow if the lake isn't frozen over. It seems to change daily. If you don't like the weather here, wait ten minutes.

That depends on the time of year.  In the summer, yes.  While my weather station states that the prevailing wind here is light and easterly, that's a bit deceptive.  Due to the topography (Sierra peaks to the east and Central Valley to the west), we generally have anabatic west winds during the day, and katabatic east winds at night.  Really nice on warm summer nights, but a bit nippy in the winter.

Around here, northeast winds are called fire winds.  From around mid August through November they're terrifying.

It's almost always from the west. Northwest or Southwest, or just plain west. The weather patterns travel that way down here.