It sounds like they're developing real tics because of subconscious influences from the tic-tacs, real fake tics which are more or less the same as real real ti

It sounds like they're developing real tics because of subconscious influences from the tic-tacs, real fake tics which are more or less the same as real real tics just brought on for different reasons. And regarding the music analogy: it's not about the person liking just the music from their formative years, it's that the music they're exposed to during those years has an outsized effect on their preferences going forward. If they pass an intuition check they'll eventually realize the _reason_ why they care so much about the specific technical details they do isn't because that music is inherently and objectively better, and if not then they'll spend the rest of their life complaining about how they just don't make 'em like that anymore.