It occurs to me that Phillipe really enjoys walking on cables.
He says it’s “illegal but not hurtful” but he was said to have done it because it was like a bank robbery.
Also, when he was taken down from Notre Dame he snatched an officer’s watch.
To me, the art here lies in his fine control of his body’s position down to the hands.
That center of mass though, haha. I agree with your last little bullet there. He must have been very gifted in his complete control of his body, maintaining his center of mass properly on the center of the wire. I believe what really drove him to do it was part of the illegality of the act. For some people they get a high from doing what is not allowed and I remember something in the documentary where he says something along the lines that it is like robbing a bank. That kind of excitement drove him to do it, and the fact that no one else has ever dared to pull of such a daring feat.