Hey, what you’re describing is pretty much covered in my “Why people play” post, player types part.
“The Big Five” or OCEAN personality trait model describes what people find interesting when they start playing, or rather do anything including in RL. And SDT theory explains why people keep playing, and also jobs, relationships, hobbies.
I dropped a bunch links to videos on different topics in my post, but I think this “Engines of Play” is the most influential if you had to pick one.