I think it's a consequence of playing with the group I'm with. In a friendly-competitive way, D&D is as much a psychological game as an RPG with us.
It's not a hostile thing, it's just something that's developed over time, I guess as we've got to know each other better. If the DM knows which buttons to press to trigger an emotional response in the player to mirror what the character would feel, it heightens the immersion. But we're good enough friends that it hardly ever crosses the line into causing problems.
An accepted trade-off is the recognition that if the DM is going to press our buttons, it's only fair that the players occasionally get to mess with the DM's head in return 😁
Ahahah that totally is fair and makes great sense!