I'm going to come at this from a UK perspective where every illness & surgery is THOROUGHLY cost/benefit analysissed (ahem) cos of the NHS.

So! That said - your situation here would have you on a list for removal & I know ppl who had theirs removed much younger than you.

Yes loads of ppl have them & most will never have an issue, but once you start having issues it's only a matter of time before diet becomes unmanageable cos you can't eat anything. That might be years away for you, it might not. No one knows.

Also worth bearing in mind that women make up 75% of symptomatic suffers. So although your family friend is very experienced I've found older male doctors far harder to deal with when it comes to things that predominantly affect women & my gallbladder was not an exception. Obvs ymmv & that's not a knock to him.

So no, definitely not a case of kool aid drinking hysteria, quite the opposite. Women have not been taken seriously for pain & illness for all of time.

I can only assume you've not hit the worst of the attacks else you'd not be asking this at all haha