I think it's about being more or less autodidactic.
True autodidacts do tend to struggle in conventional/Socratic models because their ONLY means of understanding material is top-down and entirely internal and idiosyncratic.
They really can't use someone else's "system" for understanding a series of concepts or a body of work.
You've just described me, though I also think that quality of teaching is very important. In general, I learn best when I teach myself, but I think part of that is due to teachers who aren't super-talented at what they do. When I was lucky enough to be in a class taught by an incredible teacher,
most of the kids in the class got enthusiastic about the subject. So, for example, most of the kids in Mrs. S's Spanish class talked to each other in Spanish outside class. It was a completely natural thing to do. So it wasn't that she was just on my particular wavelength; she was just really good. That said, I was also inspired to learn additional related material on my own, so perhaps she also contributed to my ability to teach myself.
I agree about the importance of well-developed executive function in autodidacticism. Motivation is also important. IMO, the thing about teaching yourself is that it's all really fun and exciting at first, but you have to be able to keep working when things get routine. I taught myself as a kid, but my abilities were relatively limited and I didn't start to really refine these skills until my twenties.
I also pretty much think that smarter people benefit the most from online classes, primarily because smarter people are better able to teach academic subjects to themselves.
