Go on unto perfection

Dear brethren,

Today's, readings
Leviticus 15-18; Psalm 31; Hebrews 6

Heb 6:1 — Heb 6:2
​Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Aha! There you have it! We are not to lay again the doctrine of baptisms therefore baptism is not important!

Really? Well first of all we are also told not to "lay again" repentance from deadworks (or sin, c.f. Heb 9:14) Faith toward God, of resurrection of the Dead, and of eternal judgement, too!
So obviously, if this was the one baptism unto salvation as taught in the bible (and btw it's plural here), it is as important as faith, and the doctrines of the resurrection and eternal judgment.
Secondly, "baptisms" here really should be translated as "washings" as we read later in Heb 9:10. That is to say the various  OT ceremonial washings that we read of in Exodus 29 and following.
So how do we make of this? We need to go back to the context of the writer rebuking the people for not growing. So these were still struggling with the basics of the doing away with the OT and accepting the law of Christ.
We are not to "leave" the principles as in to discard them but to grow from them. The foundation of a building is the most important part but a building cannot stay in the founfation state!
Part of the "confusion" in this passage is also the mix of what we already know to reject and what we already know is established. But which can be easily resolved by understanding what the writer is trying to put across. And most importantly all part and parcel of the basics just expressed in the dos and don'ts.
Repentance of sin, faith toward God, established. Basic step toward salvation (act 2:38, Eph 2:8)
Baptisms - part of old law already known to be rejected.
Laying on of  hands - not about performing miracles but as read earlier about ordination of priests. Which is no longer linked with the levitical linneage.
And of course the resurrection and eternal judgment had been established.
So at the end of the day, is the writer trying to emphasize the fact that the Christian needs to learn and move on from the basics. Otherwise we will always be babes and might even find ourselves looking for alternatives if we do not fill up with the proper doctrine (c.f. V. 6)
Let us not remain as spiritual babes but continue to nourish ourselves by feeding on the Word AND applying it that we may continue to maturity and perfection.