I don't know that there's a benefit, per se, except that figuring out why it happens could be beneficial. It was beneficial for me to learn that I obsess about X to keep from thinking about Y. I'm not sure I ever realized I did that before.

Similarly, it could be beneficial to realize you crave X in therapy because it's something you're missing in the rest of your life, or because you have strong ambivalent feelings about X.

Sometimes I craved talking to my T because, I later realized, it had become habit not to "burden" real people with my problems. Other times I obsessed about talking to T because, I later realized, I had strongly ambivalent feelings about opening up in general.

As for it being "part of the process," I think this is more nebulous and difficult to define. I guess it's part of the process in that everything is "part of the process"--grist for the mill, if you will.

A more relationally-minded person might say that maybe one's obsessing about the therapeutic relationship signals an insecurity about all relationships or something.

Others might say that the whole thing is indicative of an unhealthy dynamic build right into the fabric of therapy itself.

Who knows. What does your T think?

ETA: I also think that sometimes "part of the process" is just another way of saying "don't worry about it."