Great thread. I think somewhere in here is the factor that most people are the same religion as their parents.
This used to be remarkably true but now that the world is becoming more secular it is not happening as much.
It reminds me of food. People love the dishes they ate when they were children.
People crave that food all their lives. It doesnt matter if it is strictly not the tastiest or most palatable mentally.
It goes back in a far more primal way than that.
That is the way religion seems for a lot of JWs that learned it when children.