Here is an interesting conversation related to your query, Jon, by culadasa and friends.
i began reading and an intense aversion overcame. I then attempted to not let the aversion prevent an activity i otherwise intended to execute. But i still wanted to observe the aversion. So in observing the aversion while reading the subject matter, I started to laugh. I don't know if i was laughing at myself or at the erudite jargon of a correspondence that didn't impart any clear raison d'etre. But just to sum up my current understanding of mr culadasa's pov is that he doesn't believe frution is necessary for SE.
Culadasa saidI'd just like to make one point clear. We are discussing the magga-phala event, not Stream Entry. I bring this up because Stream Entry identifies a permanent change in a person. I have been finding that some people undergo that permanent change without having had a memorable magga-phala experience. Perhaps they've had it but don't remember it, but they can't even point to any particular day or week when the change happened, when they became different from what they once were. Furthermore, I have encountered people who describe what sounds like magga-phala, and who have had a teacher verify it as such, but who fail to manifest the characteristics of a Stream Entrant as described in the Suttas and commentaries.
(upon further reflection, it no longer seems odd that a person who is, probably, extremely skilled at attaining fruition is also extremely interested in reflecting on the nature of said fruition.)
