And from the context it was clear that you talked about a browser
exploit when you said "its much harder to steal all my email, run off
with my credit card data or just be a nuisance."
SELinux constrains desktop applications too - particularly high risk ones
like web browsers.
I assume you know the chances that an average linux user actually
get
exploited in that way is very low.
I would love to see the academic paper reference for this and the
analysis as to why - maybe it's because most of them use SELinux ;)
Alan