When I first read Duke's secondary prompts, this is pretty much how I felt as well. But, I honestly felt that these questions forced me the most to articulate my strengths and weaknesses, and my motivations for going into medicine...even more so than my personal statement in some cases. Even though the secondary was tough to write, it was the most enjoyable because of this.
And, as I mentioned before, at the interview, my interviewer said specifically that he was looking forward to meeting me because of my answers. I felt that the admissions committee at Duke "knew" me more thoroughly than many other schools'...and as a result, I felt much more like an actual individual during the admissions process instead of just my AMCAS number or something.
I feel like you use the term "judging" negatively, but I don't think it's like this at all. I mean, I wrote about situations that I definitely wouldn't talk about to a random person on the street, but if you think about, it's often those situations that really shape you as a person, or your perceptions, etc. From the perspective of an adcom, I think that's what they're trying to get at.
Secondaries are meant to augment your application to paint a more well-rounded picture of yourself. I personally hated the ones where it was like "Why do you want to go to this school?" because it was like they cared less about me specifically and more about seeing how well I could BS about why I loved XYZ without having ever been there. It was more difficult to write Duke's and UCLA's (another deeply personal secondary), but I ultimately felt that it was more valuable.
Not that this actually helps you write your essays, but it's something to think about, I guess 🙂 Good luck! Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions or want my $0.02.