I guess this has been puttering along in my thoughts for a while now. Thing is, I don't get at least one part of this discussion. AMBER Diceless RPG had quite a different view on playing your character than PF does, and though I can't quote exactly:
So, he spent years blind and locked in a tiny cell. This situation would not be much fun, not for the character and not for the player. However, you might still come to the game sessions to play it out. If you loved your character.
Now, I am most certainly not advocating this approach. It's too much, too meaningless. However, what it does say that is worthwhile is that if you are invested in your character, personally, even the bad things thrown at your character are opportunities. AMBER again has suggestions for how to deal with it, again, quoted roughly:
If the GM kills off a beloved NPC, act on it. Raise monuments, order days of mourning, tell his story to the world, and otherwise mourn the hell out of him.
My point is that so long as your GM treats your backstory with respect, and lets you react to what happens, it's generally all good. You get the spotlight, your character grows more "real" and becomes a bigger part of the campaign. Further, if the GM does such a thing, the rest of your backstory also gets more relevant to the campaign.
The only price is that maybe, just maybe, you might have to show feelings that are not only (as a manga genre was described) ETERNAL VICTORY IN A MAN'S WORLD!!!
Everyone's mileage varies, of course. I enjoy it.