I would bet that the natural world is more feeling than we give it credit for. It's not surprising that this research is being dismissed, but it's also not surprising that it's being proposed now as people seem to be more empathetic than ever. I think as society grows more empathetic toward each other the more we start to empathize with and better understand the organisms we share space with. Emotions are a way of processing the world around us and reinforcing behavior. If you experience a stressful or life-endangering situation it behooves you to avoid it and emotions help reinforce that behavior. The success of the colony is some function of the success of each drone, so it makes sense that their evolution would be oriented toward the capacity for emotion.