Oh, I'm absolutely with you that he means "too important to the world". But it's so easy to read that as slashy in and of itself. *g*

(I prefer to think of the Gathering as an in-universe myth rather than something that's actually going to happen, and I probably project my own views onto Methos there, but regardless - Duncan would be the kind of person you need to have around for that, too, right? The kind of person who could survive all the fights while still retaining his own moral code, someone who won't fight for the sake of fighting.)