so there's a particularly pernicious strain of thought among cis people that trans people are transitioning because they have issues with self-love
The reasoning goes that trans people just haven't learned to accept themselves which is why they feel the need to transition, but nothing could be further from the truth. We transition because we have learned to accept ourselves.
To make an analogy, there are lots of days when I will make an extra effort to take care of myself. I might take a nice long bath, exfoliate my skin, take my time to wash my hair, dress up really nice, put on make-up, or all of the above. And a lot of the time I'm not doing that because I want to be physically attractive to others (although that's nice, too). It's also not something I do because I hate my body or I'm ashamed of my looks. Rather, it's my way of saying to myself "I love you and I think you are someone worthy of love and I celebrate you and want to take care of you and I think the whole world needs to see the same beauty in you that I see".
Transitioning is like that: it's the ultimate expression of self-love. When I transition I'm saying to the whole world: this is who I really am, the greatest expression of myself, and who I am is beautiful. I celebrate me and I want to take care of myself because I am someone worthy of love.