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I guess some of it stems down to whether or not you think that creativity is more valuable than a life lived without bipolar disorder...

 In fact, studies have shown that creativity and bipolar disorder are strongly correlated to one another. But they have also shown that family members of people with bipolar disorder who do not present as bipolar also have enhanced creativity. So what if bipolar is on the continuum of creativity, but past the point of mental health on that continuum? All four of the people you mentioned committed suicide before the age of 50.

 It is true the mania can produce extreme highs, but depression can produce equally extreme lows -- and as the "mental state" takes its course, it becomes harder and harder to produce *anything* during those often increasingly intense periods of mania. 

There are some interesting dicussions on this topic on the web both on serendip (/exchange/node/1726  -- Dr. Grobstein has just invited this conversation to find its way over here) and off (http://ideaflow.corante.com/archives/2005/11/10/bipolar_children_more_creative_than_other_kids.php) ... And I'm sure other places as well. And you're right -- some people in both locations find the illness debilitating, while others say they avoid treatment and revel in the mania. 

Still, even if there are benefits, the lows can be extremely low. A brilliant friend of mine, who had been hospitalised multiple times, talked of frequent suicidal impulses and attempts during mania (though this person didn't consider herself to be suicidal, and certainly didn't want to die). She certainly doesn't feel she has benefited, regardless of her bursts of creativity. 

This page (http://www.pendulum.org/bpnews/archive/001653.html) quotes a study that says people diagnosed with bipolar who take lithium are 8 times less likely to commit suicide than people who are off lithium. Just because there are some positives to something, if it really does kill people, does that make it not an illness?