Specialized to feel emotions and pain? By your own logic here, wouldn't these things hinder our own survival?
No. That is the opposite of what I said. By my logic, these things are "special" adaptations which humans have undergone to allow for a more complex and adaptable way of communal living. We are creatures of organization and structure in the sense that we live in complex societies which have leaders, laws, and boundaries. This is where morality and emotion play a part, allowing us to work together within the culture we ourselves have created without being carbon copies of one another. Those who cannot obey and live under the moral and social code are exiled or persecuted, and so goes human community.
Roaches, on the other hand, have communities which are based around reproducing as quickly and efficiently as possible while fending for yourself and, in most species, only yourself and perhaps your young. By doing this, they preserve the colony without directly aiding each other. They act on instinct and instinct alone because they do not NEED anything greater than their astoundingly quick reflexes. What good would it do a roach to feel pity for another, or to have morality which would keep it from, say, eating another who is dying or incapacitated. Maybe I'm reaching too far with this, but they are much different creatures from us, and in our comfortable modern society, it may seem ideal to us animal lovers to reduce or eradicate all "cruelties" to our fellow living creatures, but that is simply not how the world works.
Pain and emotion are actually very practical tools in an organism's success. With the presence of pain, an animal is able to better escape from danger, as well as learn from past unpleasant experiences. For example, in one study, honeybees were presented with two odors, one of which was associated with an electric shock. After some time, the bees learned to discriminate between the two and preemptively retracted their proboscis when encountering the one tied with electric shock. In the wild, animals that are capable of learning from pain have an advantage over those that make the same mistakes many times. Other "emotions" have similarly useful functions that I could go over if I had the time. A mere reflex does not allow for adaptability. A cockroach would be greatly benefited if it had these capacities.
Reacting and adapting to negative stimuli is much different from suffering. Also, how does a reflex not allow for adaptability? Maybe it isn't adaptable for the individual, but natural selection will allow the better reflexes and organisms to thrive and reproduce.
How would a roach be benefited if it had these capacities? It would completely change their entire way of life; they would be a completely different creature who would need to find a new niche in the ecosystem. And at what cost would these adaptations come about? They would likely need more time to gestate to form young with a more complex nervous system. Look at us; we have one child at one time on average and are often put in life-threatening danger during birth because of the size of our young's heads. Even so, it doesn't matter if they would be benefited by these capacities, as it is our current understanding that they do not have or need them.
Sorry for ranting so long. I really enjoy this topic
)