Yeah, that's actually a really good analogy. I hadn't thought of it that way specifically.
I haven't really had enough lucid dreams to make any sort of conclusion based on my experience, because I've only had one lucid dream on purpose and the other ones have been natural. But when I had the natural ones, I never needed to do any reality checks, I just knew I was dreaming.

Taking notes would be a good idea, but I have to be able to lucid dream again first lol. I was just thinking that there must be something behind the fact that I had a lucid dream straight away with the walls check, but none so far with the method where you try to push your finger through your hand.
I have also been deeply contemplating what it means to be dreaming and/or conscious when I do my reality checks, whereas before, all I did was the reality check with no further thought as to the meaning behind it.