I have no idea why I started thinking about this tonight, but why does carbonation make things better? I mean, they're just tiny bubbles. It's air in our drinks, but it makes them completely different, and in some cases better, then their uncarbonated brethren.
I will say that I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it somewhere on the internet, but I haven't gone looking for it. I prefer to speculate for a while