Do anime-only adventures (scenes and arcs) help the show or hurt it?

[Attitudefan]

Original Dragon Ball's filler with Yajirobi and Goku seeking the mystic water is fantastic and really fun! It also adds so much more to the trial and tribulations Goku must endure before taking the poison. The dark atmosphere is a plus. There's a lot of filler during the Tenshinhan arc that shows a more human, slice of life perspective of all the characters. Even before the Tenshinhan arc, Goku encounters Ten and Chiaotzu which gives way more weight to their conflict during the 22nd tournament. The Saiyan arcs pendulum room is essentially a similar idea to Yajirobi and Goku's trials with Korin, giving screen time to the side characters and a deeper look into Saiyan lore.

These are instances of good filler, and Dragon Ball and Saiyan arc DBZ do a great job with filler compared to the latter parts of Z (ie well paced, delves into lore, involves character development, don't drag on, and they tend to have good animation).

[TheZFighter]

Simple case of good and bad, isn't it?

I like a lot of the filler, like Goku's around the world training prior to the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, that episode where Gohan meets the orphans, the Garlic Jr. saga and the Otherworld Tournament, to name but a few examples, but then there are other parts I don't like as well, like all of Bulma, Krillin and Gohan's adventures in space prior to landing on real Namek (space orphans and fake Namek).

[xpNc]

I really like the last few episodes of OG Dragon Ball where Goku and Chi-chi have to get the fan and they meet Goku's grandpa again.

[DragonBallKing]

If we only include adventure stories and not stare downs and slow ass pacing, then yeah I believe things like Gohans training and the Karin tower filler in the Piccolo Daimao arc actually help the story a lot.