I am glad you mentioned these points. I work with mainly Asians from Asia and I am left wondering where this idea that they value introversion comes from, I often feel tempted to tell them to get with it and that we are not in some rice paddy back in 1920 and we do not have to be stuck together all the time. They just seem to be very group oriented and they just do not understand that I do not really want to work in groups with them to do every thing. My personal opinion is that the ones I work with tend to dislike loner types and people who dislike working in groups. I do believe that beyond the superficial politeness, they do like and expect EJ-ness more than most in western societes and their J tends to be very big when you get to know them. Even the introverts amongst them seem to be really good at playing along and expect to work in groups and be around others as much as possible because they conform to expectations well. I would rather to working with westerners due to this if I am honest.
From my work and travels, I think the people who most appreciate introverts overall are strangely Africans and countries like those in the Caribean with people of African descent. They tend to leave you alone and think quiet people are just terrific and must be intelligent. Even though a lot of them are extraverts they seem to place no real value on extraversion and they tend to attach all sorts of positive attributes to people who speak little. The whole hunter-gather thing you mentioned is interesting.
~(Actually two of 'em). I think INTJs and INFPs are a lot more common although they're also rarities.
Creator of monkey smilies, we salute you!