As somebody who suffered a lot with social anxiety when I was younger I would have loved this option. I knew I could leave whenever I could but all the hand shakes and see-you-laters, etc interaction were so difficult for me.

Instead I had a really uncomfortable time "advocating for myself". Which one one hand, like you say, did teach me a lot. But it wore me down a lot and often I would be the last person to leave just because I didn't have the energy/mindset at the time. A good mixture of both would have been ideal.