I’d probably choose to display, for exactly the reason you said. I love to interact with my dolls - at least spend time looking at them often. If they were packed away in boxes I don’t think I would enjoy them as much as I do now, in which case they may as well go to a new home. It’s a dilemma though when you have more absolutely essential (!) favourites than room to display them in!

With dolls that aren’t sewn into their boxes (dolls that are meant to be removed like JS, Tonner, etc), I don’t think the box matters as much as it does with dolls who are intended to display inside their original box. The boxes take up a ton of space and if the choice is simplified to dolls OR boxes I think we would all choose dolls!!