I agree that they are probably not independent, but I have a different idea as to why. From my personal experience of playing many competitive games, when your opponent makes an obvious mistake you might get too excited or carried away about capitalizing on the mistake and make a subpar move. Consider a situation like this:
"Wow he just left his queen right open! I can't believe he did that! I'll take it with my rook."
Rook takes queen, rook is wide open, could have taken queen with some other piece and had it protected.
It's possible this doesn't apply to chess as much but in more fast paced games if you see an opening, you take it, because even if you don't capitalize 100% on it you're better off than not doing anything about the blunder.
"Wow he just left his queen right open! I can't believe he did that! I'll take it with my rook."
Rook takes queen, rook is wide open, could have taken queen with some other piece and had it protected.
It's possible this doesn't apply to chess as much but in more fast paced games if you see an opening, you take it, because even if you don't capitalize 100% on it you're better off than not doing anything about the blunder.