Maybe, but I tend to think introverts are more capable of exercising their secondary E functions than they allow themselves to believe.
One of my main complaints about INTPs is that I seem much more willing/able to use secondary Ti than they are to use secondary Ne, for some reason. I think a lot of it is just in your heads, frankly.
You think Einstein (INTP) could have completely reinvented our modern understanding of physics without a strong balance between his dominant Ti and secondary Ne?
His quote about no problem being solvable from the level of consciousness that created it it in itself a declaration of the value of Ne.
For another example, look at Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan, who I am pretty certain is INTP, learning to appreciate the value of Ne in the song "Lateralus":
Black then white are all i see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see.
as below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.
The "overthinking, overanalyzing" withers his INTUITION and leaves opportunities behind because it never takes action without complete information (which it never really has.) Story of the INTP's life!
That's good stuff. Thanks for posting those lyrics. Pretty inspirational really. I've had people tell me that they think it's all in my head, like you mention. And perhaps that's true. In the lyrics, he mentions "pushing the envelope", "drawing outside the lines", "embracing the random" and "whatever may come". That's what can be scary. I read somewhere that extroverts have a more predominant emotion of anger and lashing out, while introverts have a more predominant emotion of fear and they retreat.
I guess from this INTP's perspective, for those who care to know, I know in my heart that it's "possible" for me to extrovert effectively. I know I can do it. It just really goes against the grain of who I am. At least that's how it feels. Just like when I have a 9 to 5 job, after years of doing that, I feel jacked up inside. It's like, "Good God, let me out of this box! Let me go free!" Trying to extrovert permanently, as a way of daily life (not being able to retreat for significant periods of time) feels the same way. It's like you're fighting something and it's difficult to keep the fight. It's like a boxer who has a 15-round fight. As tired and drained as he is, he hangs in there for 15 rounds because he knows theres a reward at the end and he'll feel better about himself in the long run and even gain confidence, but after the 15 rounds are up someone tells him he has to go another 15 rounds tomorrow. And then 15 the next. And 15 the next. It's tough to keep up the fight.
Another thing when we continue to extrovert day after day and for hours at a time is it starts getting really weird sometimes. REALLY. WEIRD. You start to feel like a zombie, you get very impatient, sick and tired of all the mindless chatter going on around you, stress level is high, things like hunger and headaches have a heightened sense of urgency and, perhaps worst of all, we often can intuit that other people see us as awkward and out of place. That makes it 10 times harder. Like if I'm collaborating on a team for a project (that I may think is lame to begin with, but not always) and I can sense that my "creative, out of the box ideas" and most of my input is seen as different, strange, weird, or maybe gets a "roll of the eyes" - I start to think "why am I doing this to myself?" Why continue to stay in this 15-round fight - I'm trying SO HARD to contribute but it's just not being received well.
At the end of the day though, simulated world is right in that there's no excuse. I always want to be who I am (and not try to be some other type), but at some point one has to stop with the excuses and delve into the "unknown" and "embrace the random" and "whatever may come".
Or just play D&D for the rest of your life. LOL. Whatever! I've never even played that game in my life.