Is a bit error rate close to 1 just as desirable as one that is close to 0?
A bit error rate of 1, if you know there is an error rate of 1, is perfect as you can simply invert all the bits and get the original data.
If you don't know the bit error rate is 1, and therefore don't correct for it, then it is not good.

As a real world example, PCIe during it's link training phase can happily detect polarity inversion of its data lines (positive and negative pins reversed). This produces a BER of ~1, which it will detect and then correct for by inverting the data stream.