This is actually a major stoic critique of epicureanism! I don't disagree, although I may be more a fan of hedonic calculus to assess my options :-)

And as an aside and prelude to my next comment, epicureans highly valued friendships, and devoting a great amount of time to their friendships. They eschewed political participation, thinking it a bit illusory.

No, absolutely not. That statement, when written, was directed to the young aspirant of change who perhaps has an idea of what they want to do in the world, but still requires far much more perspective than they have (and they don't even know it).

If I had to choose between an evening with a great mind in the form of the book and a real friend, I would choose a friend any night of the week.

This does betray my epicurean perspective, however, that I value socializing with friends over political/social participation. And I think lifetime-wise I would be more pleased with great friendships over virtuous placement in a public hierarchy - which, again, betrays an epicurean (as opposed to stoic) value set.