"I think it is a plus."
I'm really not glass-half-full'ing you. As i said, "it's a plus when it's a plus and a minus when it's not".
Let me give you a little example: my entire life. I'm so stimuli-allergic i've spent my life trapped in my room- no friends, no career, no hope (and NO MONEY!). Emotion, as you point out, can and does kill many, but the one thing it is VITAL for, is motivation. Time and again, i've tried to scold myself into acting but my brain responds, "uh uh pal, i'm going to hide in my burrow till i die." The plus in the minus here is that i've been forced to evolve an original personality, real independence from the hive mind. With age, i'm finding this a richer bonus than its drawbacks. Arthur Rimbaud: "As for me, i am intact and don't care." Plusses in minuses in plusses.... And anyway, "Why would you want to be integrated into a burning house?" -Dr. M. L. King, and James Baldwin (I think JB said it first).
Later,
infinice