Yeah they're totally different dimensions and people just like different stuff. I think you hit on what makes difficulty appealing though, as you(r brain) gets good at it and muscle memory sets in, you have to think less and less about it, you get that "flow" state where everything you do Just Fucking Works and it's all flowing or rhythmic. It's almost another kind of puzzle solving, "I figured out what the dev wants me to do here," the execution barrier itself is the learning phase.