Great question and I agree with your conclusions. As a liberal, very open-minded person (even now, at 56) I believe some of this may come down to being strategic or unstrategic. I am notoriously not focused on the ball, as soon as the game becomes more complex. I can kill at Scrabble, with its relatively simple strategy--but when it comes to chess and some of those Euro board games, count me out. When you are empathic, life isn't a game.