I routinely use em-dashes in technical/scientific writing. The GP was talking about a false accusation in university — a place where you generally produce formal writing.

>it's more complicated to insert them

Word automatically replaces the hyphen with it when between words surround by space — because it's the correct punctuation. I sincerely hope you don't believe it's too complicated when the task is done for you by Word — the most popular word processor. Additionally — just to test it out — long pressing hyphen yields the character on my phone. This has allowed me to effortlessly pepper this reply with slightly extended — and a touch controversial — horizontal lines.

Just because your writing style doesn't use em dashes — a rule taught to literal school children — doesn't mean it's not "normal."

Finally, I am sorry to report that my use of the em-dash has not allowed me to transcend humanity and become a cyborg — though I will return with a follow up post if I suddenly sprout a Serial port.