Re: Even more of a ramble...
Sure - and some people who are "clever" get off on the status and ability to lord it over other people that being "clever" gives them. However, even in those cases, I've really never come across a place (at least pre-university) where there wasn't a base-level resentment and suspicion of people who are "too smart" - sure, tons of that comes from envy, but that fact is, it's still there. The same people who said "wow, I wish I was as smart as you" were the ones who gave me funny looks when I used "big words" and arranged their "praise" so that it was a subtle put-down - "wow, I wish I was as clever as you, I just get by on being pretty." "Wow, you're so smart it's weird." "We can't ALL be as smart as you." And so on, and so on, and so on.
So sure, people would love to be clever. But usually, they have an exaggerated idea of what "clever" brings along with it, particularly in the earlier stages of life (adulthood can be, if you're in the right place, better in terms of awarding status to intelligence, rather than ostracising - but it's not a given).
Which, returning to the original topic, would certainly apply to gifts of magic, as well - sure, everyone THINKS they want to be a telepath, and be "special" like that. They even make up stories about how they really are (and everyone rolls their eyes). None of them see the subtle stand-off and hostility that comes along with people actually KNOWING that you can read their minds. So you have this paralysing double-knot - on the one hand, the telepath spends their whole life being told about this "gift" that they have, this wonderful thing, how everyone else envies, how everyone else would LOVE to be this way. But what the telepath themself sees, from childhood, is people drawing away in the streets; friendly acquaintances becoming suddenly less friendly and more suspicious once they know; people being uncomfortable at any mention or evidence of the "gift". And yet, one is not allowed to complain - after all, everyone else would LOVE to be this way!