Venn, I think that your assessment of companionship needs is probably good--
for you. 
Not everyone has the same needs for human companionship.
I have, for example, very few close friends aside from my partner. My partners have
all been of near-equal intelligence with me. It's a core thing for me to have my copilot in life be able to use his own cognitive abilities and understanding of the world to make sense of my sometimes obscure commentary about things.
I know from experience that those of more-nearly average IQ tend to struggle there, and by extension, I struggle with them, too. We both wind up frustrated by encounters in which I spend most of my time backtracking and explaining myself again, and the rest of it impatiently hoping that they'll 'cut the fluff' and get to the point. They don't get my jokes, and I frequently find that I'm patronizing rather than 'enjoying' since it all seems painfully obvious and even trite/repetitive to me. I realize that seems arrogant, but really-- other than pretty superficial, well-defined interactions, we're both better off not trying to do that for long periods of time. They don't enjoy me much either, because none of my jokes or anything make sense, so I come across as 'weird.'
I definitely wouldn't have a life-partner that was in that category. We'd both be miserable.
It's not that I can't learn anything from someone of even well-below average intellectual capacity. I can and have. I admire principles, empathy, and kindness wherever they reside.
I find that my
real friends are all people who fit BOTH categories relatively well. Or they aren't what I consider "friends" so much as "acquaintances."
