Then WTF is Ni?
I think you're misunderstanding NFJs. If an NFJ seems uncaring or judgmental about someone else's feelings, it's probably because they FEEL THE PAIN SO MUCH that they are trying to compensate by suppressing it. Or, they recognize a situation where they will be potentially flooded with other people's pain and avoid it by passing it off as unworthy. No matter what the NFJ says, they're just scared to admit that the intense pain they're ignoring is valid and needs to be addressed.
What about NFPs? Do they have a tendency to suppress empathy if it becomes too much, too?
Nope. At least, not me, unless it goes on for way too long, then I'll find a way to distance myself and numb myself out for a while.
For the most part though - the more intense an emotion, the better
This does seem to differ from enneagram to enneagram. As a 4, intense emotion is kinda my homestead
What the person you're quoting likely meant is that NFJs are usually more focused on the relationships between people, in the here and now and how they'll affect the future. Aka, the practical application of it, the nitty gritty and manoeuvring/wielding that system that people tend to be part of.
It makes you guys great hands-on and solving things right then and there.
Meanwhile, we tend to be less hands on and less good with the practical system manipulation/management, since we spend that time instead reflecting on the roots of each emotion, how it affects everyone differently, which factors come into play on *why* a particular emotion would likely manifest in such a person and how that will continue projected into the future.
Iow, we build an integral system and personality map people - hence our love for working one-on-one, to really get into the nitty gritty details of a person - and most often, ourselves. It lends us a better theoretical understanding, perhaps, and often a more idealistic, stringent, more complete theoretical view of how people work and *why*. We also tend to prefer with the raw emotion at the root, instead of trying to regulate it, to really full experiment with it and see what it can do and how it morphs. That raw authenticity is kind of like the bedrock of all knowledge for NFPs. Kind lab-rat experiment style. And it drives us to want to walk a mile in others shoes, just for the heck of it, to the last details. Hence the link with greater understanding - we tend to do more comprehensive, theoretical studying.
Meanwhile, while NFJs certainly have a great degree of insight in other people, with the help of Ni, of course, you guys tend to be way better at the actual picking up when something needs to be managed, taken care of, and therefore picking up signals of others so you can intervene or channel the energy of the group properly. We're too busy in our heads, building our internal system and self-reflecting, to pay attention to that shit, pick up on it, let alone channel and manage it, as that is not where our interest usually lies.
It comes down to practical knowledge vs theoretical knowledge, really. While we both are adequate in both fields, we have a preference for one or the other. And yes, it is possible to consciously gain more proficiency and experience in the other field, if so desired. It just takes a mental shift.