From Stick and Rudder, wrt to noise in the environment that makes learning the basics difficult.
A person who grew up on boats is going to focus on the salient clues without even thinking about it while the person who is learning for the first time has to learn what to focus on and what to ignore.
This is very closely related to this thread:
As an example on the maritime side, it’s far easier to maneuver in heavy ship traffic by eye with an occasional look at the ARPA rather than rely upon the ARPA alone yet that’s how most new mates try to do it. Not going by eye is like doing it in zero visibility, difficult and higher risk.
The reason it’s difficult to teach is because doing it by eye seems simple and obvious, why new mates don’t pick it up is a mystery as is why new mates refuse to even try.
In fact it’s more difficult to learn than it seems. New mates are like the “savage” that doesn’t grasp the importance of traffic lights amidst all the noise.