It seems like it's so consequential because he demonstrated that no matter what kind of mathematical system you're using -- and no matter how much mathematics generally speaking develops -- there will be objectively true mathematical statements within that system that can't be proven.
If that part of my understanding is correct, the part that's really interesting to me is whether we can know these true statements to be true, despite them not having proofs. This is where I could be misunderstanding things I suppose, but it suggests there's a disconnect between what's knowable and what's provable, and furthermore, that we can know more than we can prove.
To actual seasoned mathematicians: is this a really naive interpretation of what I've read, or not?