Is it because you've never used copper pair telephone networks and only have used digital or cellular networks?
POTS is magical if you get end to end. Which I don't think is really a thing anymore. The last time I made a copper to copper call on POTS was in 2015! At&t was charging nearly $40 for that analog line per month so I shut it off. My VoIP line with long distance and international calling (the pots didn't) is $20/month with two phone numbers. And its routed through a PBX I control.
POTS is magical if you get end to end. Which I don't think is really a thing anymore. The last time I made a copper to copper call on POTS was in 2015! At&t was charging nearly $40 for that analog line per month so I shut it off. My VoIP line with long distance and international calling (the pots didn't) is $20/month with two phone numbers. And its routed through a PBX I control.