"taught to count" I think that is the key. "1, 2, 3. There are 3 apples." is a little easier than "0, 1, 2. There are 3 apples." Counting the first item as "1"

"taught to count" I think that is the key. "1, 2, 3. There are 3 apples." is a little easier than "0, 1, 2. There are 3 apples." Counting the first item as "1" total items leads to 1 being more natural in the same way that incrementing a pointer by 0 giving you the first element is more natural. The former is the abstraction layer most people are more familiar with.