the "we just met" scene with our regular play partners, weirdly hot

so we've had the same regular play couple for like 3 yrs now in perth, we know everything about each other, weve been on holiday together etc. last month we tried something where the 4 of us pretended we'd never met before, met up at a hotel bar like total strangers, did the whole "im X im Y" introduction thing... obviously we know each other inside out but the act of pretending we didnt was hot in a way i didnt expect. like we got to "discover" them again. anyone else done the pretend-we-just-met thing w regulars? curious how common this is or if we've stumbled on something niche...