Question:
The emphasis on mitzvot being put in place to make us better individuals... this implies that something within us is in fact lacking? How could that be true, when we have a piece of God in us? That piece of Hashem is wholesome, pure, and great... and in essence, that is the realest version of us as individuals. The true, real, purest part of me is my Godly soul - that of which is not lacking in any way. So, how could mitzvot make me a better person externally, when I internally already have pure greatness? Why am I trying to do things to make up for something that is not intrinsically lacking?
Answer:
Whether you realize it or not, you've touched upon what I believe is both the ultimate purpose, as well as paradox, of being human. We are created b'tzelem Elokhim, which implies we have an inherent ability to transform everything to good, and yet we've never managed to do that. Yes, there have been a multitude of accomplishments, etc. that have been for the good, and life is certainly better now than it was throughout history, but overall humanity has been anything but God-like. At the root of your question is: How can anything 'bad' exist in a world created by a perfect Power? That's a much deeper topic, which we can get into later if you're interested but for now, I'll give you an answer (I don't have 'the' answer) to your question.
The soul is the link, conscious or otherwise, between the material and spiritual worlds. That soul is pure, but it is housed, some might say entrapped, in the body, the material world. The soul is constantly yearning to get closer to the Divine, the body is constantly working in the opposite direction. The way the Good Lord built the world has stacked the odds overwhelmingly in favor of the material. For the vast majority of humanity, our sensory desires are the only determinants of our actions. We are physical beings living in a physical world requiring physical gratification in order to survive. Rare is the person who puts his or her spiritual nourishment above that of the body. This raises an obvious question: If our purpose is to get closer to God, why did He configure the world in such a way as to make it seemingly impossible to accomplish the mission? Great question requiring a much longer response but it does lead us directly to the reason for mitzvot.
Given the extremely uneven playing field, we need a roadmap, a user's manual to life. In today's language, mitzvot would be considered a life hack. At their most basic, mitzvot establish a rule book to keep us moving in the right direction and out of trouble. If done with more kavanah and desire to understand, mitzvot, metaphorically speaking, begin peeling back the layers of drech that build up on all of us over time. With ever-increasing God-consciousness more layers are removed, easing the weight on our souls, making it possible for the "realest version of us as individuals" as you put it to begin to shine through. And so it goes. More commitment, less weight, more Divine light shines through.
Our purpose is to rectify the world, including ourselves, by acting in a way that reflects the Divine within us. If it were simple, there would be no value and appreciation for the journey or the destination. For most, the amount of work and sacrifice necessary is too overwhelming to contemplate. Simply doing mitzvot is sufficient and tantamount to living the way God intended. There's nothing wrong with that approach but it's really only the starting point. The greater value and reward can only be found in going beyond the minimum and using the mitzvot as a way of understanding God's ways and in so doing, forging a much closer relationship with Him.
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