@ity@estradiol.city thinking out loud here as to what may be going through people’s heads.

The first order is that “attention seeking” is role-breaking. Someone doing so is moving outside their assigned role to get at more of a resource. A person might see this like someone stopping a breadline to demand twice as much bread. So they are “social upstarts”

A second thought like is that “attention seekers” are attempting to usurp the attention of another. E.g., I was trying to paying attention to X, now you’re trying to make me pay attention to you. Someone might take this as annoying social pressure. So they are “meddlers”

The third mode I can think of is that attention seekers often need to act in a surprising or contrary way, even against their good sense and nature, to get attention. So they are willing to “debase” themselves.

I tend to take the view of like you say; everyone attention seeks, some are just poor at hiding it and trip on the hidden social rules.