Why are the Betazoids described as an empathic species in SFA? Troi was an empath, but that’s because she’s half human. Lwxana and the Betazoid “delegates” in LDS are all telepathic. They all regularly use telepathy to speak to each other and to humans they’re close with. Why are the Betazoids in Academy signing to each other to communicate subtly instead of thinking?
Also, was the Betazoid president’s taking off of the speech device supposed to be symbolic of something in lore? I know the actsman is Deaf, but is there some kind of link between Deafness/muteness and the psionic wall?
I think it’s complicated by the fact that Deanna Troi is the Betazoid “prototype,” but as you noted, she was presented as somehow “weaker” than other Betazoids due to her half-human physiology. And even then, she was capable of full telepathic communication with Riker.
But after that, we had stuff like Lon Suder in “Meld,” saying things like, “Most Betazoids can sense other people’s emotions,” without mentioning telepathy at all. Even Memory Alpha seems to have resorted to using the term “telepathy/empathy” here and there - it all seems rather messy.