What you’re missing is that a sizable minority of Puerto Ricans want independence (about one third), a sizable minority like the status quo (about one third), and only a minority want Puerto Rico to become a state. Most Puerto Ricans don’t speak English, have a strong sense of their uniqueness and resent people from the mainland (including those of Puerto Rican ancestry). Moreover, the island is not self sufficient.
A third of Puerto Ricans want independence? That is not correct. The only political party in Puerto Rico that supports independence routinely gets less than 5% of the vote in each general election.
A more correct statement would be that the rest of the voters in Puerto Rico are about evenly divided between remaining a “commonwealth” or joining the federation. To that I can add that previous supporters of independence are now flocking to the “commonwealth” party in an attempt to stop statehood, yet that combined movement continues to shrink while the statehood movement continues to grow.
Also, your assertion that “most Puerto Ricans” do not speak English is also incorrect. English is a mandatory subject in all schools from 1 - 12. If you look at the employment ads in local newspapers, most if not all of the ads require that applicanys be fluent in English. I’ll grant yoy that ours is not the Queen’s English.