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That's really interesting. It never occurred to me that there could be so many little Max's and Addie's out there.
I think most family members use nns as a sign of affection and that's why they are often not short forms of names (e.g. my mom calling me Jennifer Chelle). Other people seem to really not want to bother with more than two syllables and some people don't even want to deal with that many.
You definitely have to think about nns. I doubt the parents of the Adriana and Annika that I knew ever thought that their kids would one day just be Annie's. I try to think of all the possible nns that go with any 3+ syllablle names I like and I will either nix the name or move it to the mn position if I can't think of anything good. For example, I really like Emmerich but for nns it gives you Em, Emmy, Rick, Ricky, Merk, Erk, and etc. so that one will have to be a mn if anything. Andreas is another one I really like but Andy, Andre, and Dre are dealbreakers for me so I looked around for a while and found Dries (pron. Dreez) as a nn. Other times if I find a nn I love then I will search out a fn to go with it (I don't love short forms as fns). So I love Arlo as a nn but don't like Arnold and can't use Charles so I want to use Alphonse as a first name for it. It's a bit of a stretch and not something that would have elvolved on it's own but that way I get two names that I really like.
So I guess to answer your question, no I would never use a name I loved if it meant my kid had to be another Alex or Maddie in the crowd.

Thanks for sharing this article. The comment on Max forms was great.

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I use nicknames for endearment, and make up nns all the time. I'm trying hard to avoid over popular names, so we won't have this issue. I don't think I love any names with ugly nns. I can't stand Chuck or Ed or Eddy, but then Charles and Edward aren't my favorite names either, so I'd never use them. For me, if I like a name, I like the package, meaning all the forms it could take. If a name had a possibility of a repulsive nn, I wouldn't use it.

I don't feel like reading a whole article on this but I will say that I think people give or use nicknames for many different reasons as well as the ones you mentioned. I wouldn't let the possibility of a certain nn stop me from using a name I really loved, I just wouldn't call her/him that particular nn myself.

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I've always thought that Kim is pretty much inevitable as a nn for Kimberly, as I'd never known a Kimberly who wasn't called Kim by everybody. But my sister-in-law's husband has a sister named Kimberly whose family has never called her Kim and her friends only rarely call her Kim. She introduces herself as Kimberly and signs cards and emails Kimberly and the nn Kim just doesn't seem to crop up very much.