Jeez, Lowell, that was actually a pretty good post. *ahem*
I like the concept. Ya got a point, there. I'm trying to remember the name for that device, too; no luck. Sort of like the Watcher, in Marvel Comics.
I implore people who found Stella to be unnerving and dislikeable to not feel guilty about it.
I used to see her, too, just like the cast of vagrants who hung around WSU. Some of them were impossible to feel OK about, too.
Some of you-- maybe you, Lowell-- may remember the guy we called "Cuffs" because his pants-legs were always dragging on the ground. Little short guy who always looked hostile. He came lurching up on my girlfriend [[now Mrs. Ravine) & I one night as we were coming out of George's. His growling and threatening manner scared the shit out of her, so I railed at him for a minute.

The point is that Stella may have been harmless enough, but when a crazed stranger starts screaming at you & wildly gesticulating, it's OK if you feel like "something should be done about" that person.