What are the implications of the importance of conflict in literature for real life?

In her lectures on ?The Art of Fiction," Ayn Rand argues that conflict is the most important element of plot, and that one must try to include as much conflict as possible in a novel in order to make it interesting and enjoyable. Does this mean that conflict is very metaphysically important? Is this similar to the Nietzschean notion that life is about overcoming, and that resistance is beneficial? Is this why we tend to value a good villain as much as a good hero?