For me, the single biggest factor is that I remember when I did my first solo.
This is a true story and one I wish I could tell to TCT in person.
I'd been flying as sole manipulator of the controls for the whole lesson, when the instructor said 'I'll jump out and you can go on your own" I wasn't expecting it, and said "could you just sit there and say and do nothing" and he uttered the immortal words
"No, I can't, there's no point in that, it's REALLY not the same"