I don't know if I could classify it as "incredibly valuable in almost all contexts". I have no idea what it's like to have such imagery for comparison. I dream, but cannot remember them beyond tiny details. I've had those nights where I wake up really wanting to remember a dream, but it's like trying to hold water in my palm. However, I also know when my eyes are closed because it's just pitch black (though I can tell if there's a bright light and some direction), so I know when dreaming is over quite easily.

I wonder if some of my love of word play comes from being able to just "reorient" around a concept easily. I can also read upside down or in a mirror (but not if both transforms are applied) at reasonable speed. The former was quite handy in groupwork in school because I could just sit on the other side of the table or desk and follow along instead of crowding around.

> When I read his original post and first learned about aphantasia, realized that most people have a functioning 'mind's eye', it was one of the weirdest days of my life.

The strangest thing I found is that, with hindsight, the clues are everywhere. Functioning "mind palaces", eyewitness testimony, the ability to even slightly help a sketch artist. I remember being in a yoga class and they told us to imagine "three circles around yourself". I was thinking of the circles orbiting like moons; apparently everyone else had them as concentric circles centered on themselves. I could easily flip between them, but others thought it weird how I "saw" it at first.