If it’s meant to be, it’s worth it**
I married my oldest friend’s sister in law. I know that’s kind of a stretch, but her and her sister were extremely close. One reason I was scared to ask her out was because I would be wagering my oldest friendship on our success. When you find that person, you’ll know. While I agree, a friend is a million times more precious than a lover, a partner is a million times better than that**.
On the roommate front, it’s weird. When a couple friends of mine got married back in 2011/2012, my old roommate and I had an adversarial relationship. Decided to gamble on living together, which is probably an insane idea, and she ended up staying for seven or eight years. We became better friends because of it. I made a few bucks and she got a great deal on rent.
Conventional wisdom is probably right in the end, but to hell with it. Life is too short to not take chances. (I say that knowing I might have been the wide exception in both scenarios, so take this advice with that in mind.).
**Also, don’t derive your self worth from success in romantic relationships or even whether you want to date. There is nothing in life that isn’t entirely a human construct that says we have to derive happiness from that. Happiness is defined within not a measure of someone else’s standards. Someone else very rarely has your best interest in mind.
We get one chance at life on this stupid rock, make it count for you.