You could look at it from another way and say that the frontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher reasoning, creates a rich experience. People who for whatever reason are unable to adapt have issues with this part of the brain, which is where alcohol comes in to create artificially the joys that they can't readily access.
For myself personally I have huge issues with people, have these OCD traits, issues with anger management, with navigating human environments: deficits that must be less of an issue to a lot of people. Or maybe I focus on these deficits way more because I never learned to factor human frailty. Maybe my brain is just undeveloped in a way, and my 'recovery' is an attempt at learning things ordinarily learned in one's early 20s late teens.
Or maybe this sort of stunted frontal lobe action is commonplace in a society that fosters and values childish behavior, and that alcohol and self-medication is ultimately resistant, geared toward awakening.
This might also explain why I am annoyed by what I perceive to be myopic certainties and rote learnings of all the recovery schools. Maybe they are all a part of the solution, but betray themselves by becoming the cause.