Perhaps that's what you miss, GWM, having other people around you and to talk to?
I'm the opposite, I'm happy by myself and I'm so used to not seeing anyone else on my trips that I felt there were too many during my last one (around Snowdon).
I can't say that what you describe in your OP affects me in that way. What I have had in the past, when the going got tough during the first few hours of a muliple-day walk, i.e. the first really steep climb, was that I would start asking myself why was doing this when I could be doing nice, gentle touristy things. But I always persevered, I never gave up for that.
I've cut planned routes short a number of times, though, usually because of the weather (non-stop rain, or gales, or thick mist) and in one instance for an ankle injury.
Several times, too, I've finished a trip and sworn I never want to do anything like it ever again, after all the effort of tromping about in pathless mountains, carrying a weighty pack and wild camping. But it's not long before all that is forgotten and I'm planning the next trip! Maybe there's a bit of a masochist in me.