Interesting. I guess I'm not surprised that its more fun for the audience then the crew. I always wondered what it would be like as part of a demonstration flight team. I'm not military and haven't done much of it but I never liked formation flying. You concentrate on a reference point on the other airplane and maintain distance and alignment. Gets old fast. I don't even like it on the bike. When on group rides I like some decent spacing so I can enjoy the scenery more.
It has been a long time (well over 30 years ago) that I did this, but I imagine it is close to the same today. I was never part of a demonstration team. Just an ordinary squadron pilot. By far the worst "fly bys" as we called them were when you had to take a rider. In the real old phantom days we had an additional seat where the RIO (navy) or WSO (air force) would be. When we took out dignitaries, we would always pray that they would not touch anything especially the things that were yellow and black. I would tape a big note that said, "DON'T TOUCH" to the real important stuff (like the ejection handles).
The one satisfaction that I get though, is when I would take the politician. They would always be so eager and willing. Litlle did they know that the pitch augmentation system would always malfunction intermittently and it would almost almost always cause a gastrointestinal backup (ie barfing).