Empathy: Understand? Yes. Truly Replicate? No.
I'm just a malfunctioning alien-human hybrid publishing my thoughts and experiences
I have the cognitive kind, where I can understand what another person is feeling and make the appropriate responses in most cases, but I don't feel what other people feel, which is affective empathy. I think that affective empathy is crucial to being a healthy member of society. I think it guides you to not do harm, to connect with people authentically, maintain relationships and generally just be an all-round good person.
I did have one brief experience of affective empathy many moons ago. It lasted for a few days, but it was eye-opening to actually feel a connection to other people, but also have the mindset of "there are other people who care about this person, therefore that person should be treated well and harming them is wrong on multiple fronts". If most people do have affective empathy, I can say for certain that their world is a much richer place than my own. Much richer than my own can ever be.
For myself I can emulate empathy to a sufficient degree, but it's not the real thing. It "passes" for a while until the charade loses steam, cracks inevitably form in the façade and often people get a glimpse of what really lurks beneath.
I think that if empathy is common on the planet, then making a connection with someone or some thing automatically leads to grief when that person or thing is lost. It's only a guess, but I imagine it's true. If empathy is the status quo, and grief is a given, it seems like people were engineered to grieve. If that's so, then I wonder if the processes of grieving actually adds something beneficial to someone's life. Could it be strength? Does it shape future relationships for the better? Does it help you navigate a bad relationship? Does it help you handle betrayal? Does it give you the courage to go into new relationships, especially when one, a few, or perhaps many sour?