Some privilegesprivileges are awarded to users based on their reputation. In this case, starting from 1000 rep, users get the Edit questions and answersEdit questions and answers" privilege, which means that their edits don't need to be approved any longer.
Also, they don't get the +2 reputation bonus for an accepted suggested edit+2 reputation bonus for an accepted suggested edit - note the "(up to +1000 total per user)" in the bonus for editing. Their edit isn't considered to be suggested anyway, since it's accepted automatically.
So yes, you're correct to say it usually doesn't matter that much for users past a certain reputation point, and that's what's built in the system. You can find more information on this on the main meta stack exchange site. In short, reputation is supposed to cover good answers and questions; editing isn't the focus.
One point to keep in mind is that it prevents reputation farming through editing: since your edits are auto-accepted, you could get reputation with just "editing" posts even if your edits aren't interesting.