Hey Skee, I wouldn't be so arrogant to suggest that you were swayed completely or anything, but rather that both sides have seemed to take into account the other points of view.
I can't read music very well, so most of the time I rely on my ear to play along with people having been simply told the key (and often not even that). A lot of the time friends that I jam with and I will just start a piece, not even really having a set key, but more going on whoever starts first; witha little riff ro something. This gives rise to other ideas coming from the group and we all develop, working off each other's music and ideas. Is this feeling? If you call it that, then I would say it about the most important thing to develop, but I call it something else: being able to listen. The other important thing is to be able to play in a style beffitting the music; there is no point playing country licks over heavy metal (actually, that can sound really cool, but don't try it the other way round). This is having a "feel" for the music, but that is not how I interpreted the question. To be honest, I know I am going around in circles a bit. The reason I made such strong claims at first is this: It is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking "man, you don't need to play fast, just let your emotins out. I can't play fast, but I can play meaningfully" etc. etc. As noted before in my quote from Mike Stern, sorry, but that just isn't going to cut it in so many instances. A lot of the time I feel limited by my inability to play fast because it means I cannot put the feeling into the music that I want to. Really, it shouldn't be a matter of Speed or feeling, but rather speed and feeling. However, I would think it would be easier to work on speed, and grow into feeling. Feeling comes from listening, from going out and experiencing life and developing ideas that express your experience - hopefully without cliche, unless that is your feeling. By learning about good phrasing, you can learn some good feeling from playing the guitar, the rest of it is wherever you are; regardless of whether you are playing or not. For that reason, I think it is important to work on your speed. Note, when I say speed, I mean a speed that is required to play most music confidently, not necessarily the speed that shredders get to. If you want that, fine, but most people can do without it.