This seems to be saying that some people are content remaining intersexed, while others want the disparity reconciled so their whole physiology as much as possible corresponds to their single, real gender. Are there any known factors that predispose people to one response or the other?
Yep. Dysphoria.
I differentiate between transsexual and the term trans or transgender. Transsexual is a medical term it is basically more black and white in how someone identifies; extreme dysphoria, a strong and persistent desire to live life as the gender they identify as. The term transgender is an umbrella term (one I personally don't use unless referring to young children, for that reason), it includes those who are transsexual as well as genderqueer or gender fluid, androgyne, bi-gender, cross dresser and any other trans* whatever.
For someone who is transsexual, not transitioning will almost invariably result in a never-ending state of depression and discomfort, for someone who is trans* but not transsexual, transitioning could leave them uncomfortable, or even with
(stronger) dysphoria.
So yes, there are people for whom their birth sex does not match their own image of themselves, yet would not want/need to transition. The key here is: Not everyone who is trans* has dysphoria, and that can come in different doses.
Do you think social conditioning plays a role? Put this way, wanting one's reproductive organs to match one's inner physiology seems almost superficial, like feeling if you have red hair, you should also have green eyes.
[I don't mean to trivialize the experience of transsexuals by this line of questioning. I really am trying to understand, and I appreciate your patience in answering.]
I'm a tad confused about "wanting one's reproductive organs to match" part and if you're talking generically about transition or about genitalia or what, but I don't see why one wouldn't want to have a connection between mind and body if they could, everyone else does. I can understand why people use words like superficial, it comes from those for whom sex and gender are in alignment as for them gender is the same as sex, when there is no disconsonance, how could you see it as separate things? Well when they are separate and unmatched it creates discomfort.
There are three aspects of transitioning; social, medical and legal. If I could blanket simplify things, I'd say social - changing what people call you, pronouns, how you dress etc - are about expression and fitting into the world around in a way that is comfortable. Medical - hormones and surgeries - are about dealing with dysphoria. And legal - name change, gender marker change on ID - is about ease of getting around without discrimination or the likes. With all of this there is no one way to transition and not everyone would have surgery to make themselves sterile.
Social expectations do have an impact, imo that is what leads to much depression as people can't express themselves naturally without pressure to be otherwise. When expressing yourself naturally leads to ridicule, rejection or abuse, it impacts your emotional well being, but consider how transitioning would lead to a threat of greater ridicule, rejection or abuse and the idea that it's a superficial thing has to be rejected. Just as it's said that 'no one would choose to be gay if it was a choice', no one would choose to transition if they could live a happy and fulfilled life without doing so.
People are not treated differently according to their eye colour, they are treated differently according to their sex, and when you add dysphoria on top of the social aspects of how one must navigate the world according to the gender people see them as (expectations, relationship dynamics, sexual attraction and intimacy), it can be exceptionally painful to deal with, the suicide statistics show that. It is hard to see all the areas this would impact for someone trans as it pretty much covers things someone who isn't trans would simply take for granted.