Exactly. It's simply a question of political math.
One of the problems among "True Believers" is their failure to do the math.
Elections are about ideas, but they are decided by adding and subtracting numbers, not ideas.
Be well
Not so. You and I may put ideas first & personalities second, but we are probably in a small minority on that. Most people vote primarily for such considerations as family habit or social identity, the personality of the particular candidate, or their hostility to a particular personality, social identity, etc..
Trump is formidable--as he was not in his previous effort to win the Reform Party nomination--wasn't that in 2000, when he lost to Buchanan?--because he has learned how far better to project his personality, and to combine that with speaking out on issues that the whipped cur Republicans are afraid to touch.
In that scenario, he is indeed appealing to ideas; but it is the personality factor that makes him able to do so effectively. He reminds one of Teddy Roosevelt, who basically succeeded by projecting a similar personality.