"I think there's one nuance people seem to have left out, which might be the most important one if someone has called you intense, namely as a term non-intellectuals apply to intellectuals. It's used by the kind of people who think "judgmental" is a bad thing; people who don't want to rock the boat, and think we should all get along by bracketing every zone of contention; people who avoid going into intellectual detail out of disinterest and politics out of politeness -- people like that might say "you're intense" as an attempt to explain why you scare people without being insulting and suggesting how you might soften it."
That it, as usual, beautifully put Michael.
Joanna