Hey, I don't do German but did Japanese last year which is a LOTE subject and for me, the word count did matter. If you write more than the word count that is on the prompt, you would lose around 1-2 marks which can be a huge loss if you're aiming for a high study score. I would definitely suggest you to write within the word limit (not too less which would also be a mark taken away) to ensure that you can achieve the best score you possibly can.
