Aside from any perceived "coolness", or possibly relief from insecurities...

Experienced pilots are going to react more quickly and in a more logical fashion when under immediate pressure. I do observe this in the military reserve, I work with pilots and non-pilots and the non-pilots tend to be white collar 9-5 professionals of one sort or another.

Office workers have different instincts (even if they were military operators in their distant past)... they typically don't have to solve a problem right this instant, but they do have to be very aware of politics, and also while they have longer to solve a problem, the solution must not only be correct, but as efficient as possible. The pilots will typically produce a good enough solution right now, while the white collar folks tend to do better with more time to plan (conspire).