I think it has something to do with intuiting eternalism. If you think that when you're dead you're just gone and nothing matters, then death makes life meaningless. If you think that when you die you still exist in the past, then the only advantage of not dying is that it makes the time you exist longer.

Also, I reject personal identity. Someone who remembers being me isn't fundamentally different from someone who does not. I don't know if that's at quite an intuitive enough level to explain this though.