What you pointed out in a quoted paragraph, is super interesting from psychological standpoint, how people actually build themselves and live a life in a world, which is only based upon the factual world they physically encounter, but their motivations and behaviors, rather emerge from own perception of things, therefore lean upon some form of imagination. In other terms, the factual world, does not imply anything in terms of how it ought to be understood. This is what a lot of eastern philosophers would point out - an act itself, a being itself, is empty. To make things 'full', people invent the meaning - within certain web of dependencies - and then act accordingly to what they have assumed. We live in a world of massive assumptions. Social reality, the intersubjective reality, is a conglomerate of loosely adjusted personal views. That is why communication, is crucial. Without it, our personal worlds, are desolate places. Stability, is introduced by being obliged to others and therefore, by being part of the worlds created by others. The key word is 'network'. Because otherwise, why not suddenly shift everything upside down in a whim or entirely vaporize it?
When I made Nothing Beside Remains I was amazed at how deeply people engaged in the world and how much they read into the generation, even though the procedural generation was very basic.
To tell a story one did not write, takes both a genius and a rascal.