If the fiction rings true, the reader will empathize with the characters and learn from their experiences what the characters themselves learned.

I think that depends mostly on individual reading style, actually. I tend to ignore emotional situations unless they're extremely obvious, because I find them hard to follow (which is probably because I haven't spent much energy on learning to follow them... no, I don't know which came first), which leads to not having much investment in characters compared to how most people seem to react. I find it much easier to gather insights about things like how groups might be organized, or how problems might be solved, and I do pick up the type of insight mentioned in the original post, too.