Someone with bad middos, by definition, is not a talmid chochom. Regardless of how book smart he is or how much Gemorah he knows.
My point is if someone doesn’t have good middos you know right away he’s not a talmid chochom. So when Chazal tell us to marry our daughters to a talmid chochom, it means obviously pay attention to the potential suitors middos. It goes together.
So when saying marry a talmid chochom should be the priority, it means make sure he has good middos together with his chochma.