The best intuitive discussion about lift that I've come across is John Denker's "See How It Flies": https://www.av8n.com/how/
The key ingredients that I took away from the above are that circulation and the Kutta condition are fundamental to explaining lift.
I think people's confusion with this situation is that there's no simple cause and effect. It's just that the fluid equations have a solution that has circulation and that gives lift, but you can't solve for it like you can with most mechanics problems, because you need a global solution that satisfies the fluid equations.
The key ingredients that I took away from the above are that circulation and the Kutta condition are fundamental to explaining lift.
I think people's confusion with this situation is that there's no simple cause and effect. It's just that the fluid equations have a solution that has circulation and that gives lift, but you can't solve for it like you can with most mechanics problems, because you need a global solution that satisfies the fluid equations.