Basically, we men have evolved (or been gifted by our Creator with) better spatial and movement perception. As you say, a VERY fundamental difference in hardwiring. Two somewhat overlapping bell curves, but the vast majority of males have more brain area devoted to processing things in 3D and time/motion, just like women usually have more brain area used for emotional intelligence, nonverbal communication and pattern recognition as relates to gathering.
I think of it as a strategic option:
If it is somewhere I can easily back up with space and time to do so, then it’s less time to just pull in. If it is a situation where it would be dangerous to back out, then I’ll back in; the reason being that my visibility when backing IN is better than my visibility when backing out. “Visibility” both in the sense of what I can see and of being seen.
For me it’s always a calculation of the value of my time NOW vs value of my time after whatever brought me there, the stress of non-zero chance of accident due to the inattention of others given traffic patterns, and the need to maintain, test, and improve my spatial and time/distance observations and physical coordination (like parallal parking even when you don’t have to, just to stay in practice.)
I see it much the same with regard to the differences in sexes on things like this, I find it both illuminating and entertaining...:)
There are many women would see this conversation and roll their eyes and wonder aloud why we have to analyze something as mundane as this...before rolling their eyes...:)
To which we would say “What?”