Round 2 of answering the original poster's question since I'm in an honest mood today! LOL.

Anyways:

I guess my question is....do you wish that people were more willing to try to empathize with you? To see who you really are, a complex, emotive human being who is the way that they are due to circumstances completely out of their control?

Not really. Empathy just seems pointless to me. It won't fix anything, and I tend to feel threatened if someone attempts to empathize with me and that is a very quick way to make my "narcissistic rage" flare. The worst thing is when people try to "fix" me, usually romantic partners(I've been single for over four years by choice, though many have tried to get romantically involved with me until I tell them in five minutes I'm not interested, for this very reason) and almost every friend I've ever had. They claim to want to "help" me, but since they don't know what they're dealing with(even when I straight up tell them), and their "help" just makes me so angry I could and often do scream at people. I would prefer to be alone than to have "friends" that are worse than useless to me with their misguided AT BEST versions of "help".

Or do you not really care about having people try to understand you, as long as they respect/admire you?

There is a huge difference between understanding someone and empathizing with someone, those two often coincide but not always. I am often told I "understand" people but I certainly cannot empathize even if I tried. Narcissists wouldn't be so good at what they do if they didn't understand how human beings work, same can be said for sociopaths and psychopaths also.

I don't like being "understood" at all. It makes me "see red". I get so infuriated I cannot even articulate how much so. Why do I hate being "understood" so much? Because someone truly understanding me is extremely rare. That's why. Most just enjoy deluding themselves into thinking they "understand" me. It's stupid, pathetic, and the fastest way to earn my straight up hatred.