Try this.

It's only weird because you have not done any thing to balance out the sound.

You're only looking at it from the perspective of a single element. You need many components on counter acting each other at times to get a balanced mix.

What you're describing is basically summing the signal mono, unless you do something to alter the signal in a way.

See Haas effect.

If i hard pan left or right, i typically have it as a low volume or it's a time delay or a tonal difference and usually in opposite radial coordinates (i think that's right) than what the original signal is.

Check that link and look up haas effect though, it will help you understand how panning is perceived through volume, tonal, and distance differences.

If you're using a stereo track then in most DAWs the panner acts as a balance between left/right channels.  If you want to pan a track within a stereo field then use a mono track and pan accordingly.

You can also control the stereo width. Ill.Gates, suggested this in one tutorial, and it's come in handy many times.