My instructors have all transitioned from talking about flying tasks to talking about "life in general" either as an effective "distraction" or just 'cause things were going well.
I wouldn't hire someone to teach me how not to kill myself in an airplane that I didn't get along with well enough on the ground to have a "regular" conversation with. Not at today's or yesteryear's CFI rates.
I met my first CFI via Ham Radio. We were casual "friends" long before we got in an airplane together. When he was diagnosed with cancer and recovering I would go to his house and pepper him with dumb aviation talk and questions just to keep his mind off of the effects of chemotherapy. Or just tell him that he had to eat something sooner or later when he was nauseated.
He got through that, full recovery, and today flies 777s. We still talk regularly.
Not saying your CFI will always turn out to be a great life-long friend, but if they're so far off your "wavelength" that it wouldn't even be possible, find another CFI with more in common. Aviation is just like any other hobby, much more fun when shared with friends or at least acquaintances you get along with.
I've flown with a couple of CFI's I wouldn't have hired... And didn't. Usually "assigned" to me for some check ride or whatever. Life's too short to hand tall piles of cash to someone you don't like to teach you something, unless they're the only CFI with a special skill for a couple hundred miles around.
If the guy or gal can teach you to fly at Mach 3 with your hair on fire and brought their own SR-71 and fuel... By all means, fly with the dead fish personality in the other seat. But for most CFI duties, there's a lot less stinky fish in the sea.
Personally I like a CFI that challenges me to fly better always and is willing to demonstrate that they can do it. "Okay dude, you don't like my crosswind landings, next one is yours!" That way if they botch it we can both laugh at the outcome.
I'm secretly competitive. Once my CFI has that figured out, they can make me work my butt off like a puppet on a string. But I have no respect if they won't "keep up". (With "keep up" in quotes because most CFIs can "out-fly my ass" just fine. But when I get frustrated or can't quite nail something I want to see someone else do it.
My first CFI nailed this trait in me (competitiveness) and would make me do things like dutch-rolls on the way to the practice area (his are still better than mine) and "Betcha a Coke you can't land and be off by the first turn-off" straightened my short-field landings right out.
Hire people that bring out the best in you. No matter what your learning type is.