My cat was a single cat his whole life, and was very social and well-adjusted, not neurotic.
I also met people who got a second cat to keep the first one company, and those two cats hated each other for their entire lives…not a good thing for either of them. I have met other cats in multiple cat households that clearly wanted to be only cats.
Cats, like people, have different personalities. Some need more company from their own species than others.
Some of it depends on how much time you’ll have for the cat. If you work at home, or rarely travel/go out other than to work, one cat should probably be fine. Two is helpful if you work long hours and/or do a lot of travel and social things away from home.
I happen to think multiples are more fun all around. That may be why I have 8…
Depends on the cat(s) involved. Our previous cat absolutely hated other cats, and would NOT have accepted a sibling. At least not a feline one. He got along fine with our bird when she joined the family, and loved dogs.
I’m not sure if our current cat just hates other cats, or simply doesn’t know how to deal with young kittens. We briefly had a roughly 5-week-old houseguest for a few days, until we could find her a foster home via the local shelter, and Allie spent most of that time hiding. The one time she actually met the kitten, LOUD hiss and she bolted. Seemed to actually be afraid of the little one.
TL,DR version: some cats like having other cats around, others really don’t and are quite content being only kitties.
I’ve owned several cats in my life, usually more than one at time. With only a single exception, they’ve all preferred to avoid other feline company as much as possible. As long as you have time to give them the required attention, I’m pretty sure they’re happy solo (on average, anyway).
I have two cats, and they probably spend MAYBE an hour a day together playing. Rest of the time, daughter’s cat hangs with daughter in her room and my cat hangs in the living room during the day and sleeps with me at night.
If they had insisted (and not just in the case of a pair of cats that had been together and had to be adopted as a package deal) I would have thought they were going overboard, but as a recommendation, I agree with it. I’m not sure why you couldn’t handle two cats if you could handle one; in some ways, two are easier, since you don’t have to be their sole source of play and attention.