Well, while Valverde was always amongst the favorites , to me he was never Roglic or Froome type of pre-race favorite. In 2006 according to the commentators back then, he was the main favorite. Hence I asked was he really that good back in 2006. Speaking of wins, I clearly thinh that if he had won a Tour and one more Vuelta even at the expense of 20-40 'small' wins, his career would've been better and certainly different.
Regarding his desire to win the Worlds and not the Tour, my opinion is that him not winning to Rainbow jersey (considering his skillset) at least once would be one of the strangest things in cycling (a bit like Sagan failing to win MSR). Add to that the national pride and the fact that in the later part of his career he wasn't even the best GT rider in his team and you will understand why he wanted the Worlds more than the Tour.