Is academic collaboration overrated? Should one seek it or avoid it?
In many fields collaboration is not only advisable but necessary because the expertise of a single individual is not enough to complete the work necessary. The days when one scientist can do everything themselves is long gone. People have specific areas of expertise and the work required to become a competent expert in every domain needed for a particular effort is too great.

For instance, I do modeling in a number of materials applications. There is literally no way I could do the experiments necessary to support all of the work in my research, so I need to rely on collaborators who have the necessary experience who can perform and guide the complementary experiments, as well as provide the experimental equipment!