TNG is my comfort show, it's fun and interesting and sometimes cheesey but then you come across episodes like this one that get you so damn invested, the acting and story telling just blows me away. I use arch btw.
My takeaway is that Troi must be damn good at her job. Count up how much trauma Picard has gone through over the years and still is fit enough to captain the flagship of the fleet. Although Starfleet did seem hesitant on him based on the start of First Contact, but probably not just for the Borg connection, but for everything else too.