Stockholm syndrome? There's really no excusable "cause" for bullying; it's like saying you don't regret getting raped because, at the time, your sexual drive was lagging behind your peers. That's a rationalization and a way to cope with trauma for the victim. From the other side it's simply blaming the victim.
I'm in no way grateful that I was bullied, I didn't enjoy my school years. But part of the reason why I was singled out for bullying was because I spent a lot of my school years buried in math books rather than being with my peers. When I started to understand how badly behind I was socially at around age 14, I started to make the changes necessary to catch up. This meant talking and listening to to the kids at my school a lot more. I didn't realise this because of the bullying, but they were clearly related.
The bullying was damaging I agree, but I think taking me out of school completely would have been so much more harmful.
Right, indeed, I'm not a psychologist by any means, but I also think that removing the problem altogether without solving it could be damaging too, maybe in other, more subtle ways later on. To be honest, I don't think there's a solution to bullying that wouldn't be damaging in some way, for all involved - once it starts, it's already too late to go back to normal; you can only do damage control and hope for time (and/or professionals) to help heal the wounds.
I'm glad you've made it out of that situation without major harm (and even some constructive conclusions), but you're an outlier, I think. Normally it doesn't go that well. It really shouldn't happen in the first place...
