>>97223626
Because your clone living on isn't the same as your consciousness continuing.

>>97223626
In addition to the continuity question >>97223655 poses which is quite difficult and generally costly to answer (which varies by edition, which is in-universe split between obtuse changes in how magic functions and versions of the spell), lichdom makes you a lot harder to put down in the first place, brings you back faster, for as many times as you can get away with for a single up-front cost, and actually "solves" aging fully.

>>97223626
IDK about 5e, but in many of the earlier editions your soul adheres to your racial lifespan. Spells can stretch your lifespan a limited amount, slowing ageing or giving you the statistically unlikely but theoretically possible best lifespan while keeping you younger than you look - like a wizard looking ~50 from the ages of 50 to 140, then dying.

But there was usually a limit in place that prevents you from attaining immortality while in possession of a mortal soul, which is why lichdom was appealing to some. You had to tap into some kind of necromantic bullshit to acquire eternal existence on the material plane, otherwise your soul would "wear out" and rejoin the cycle or whatnot.

Clone spells combined with spells that diverted your soul into them if you died unexpectedly were great for staying YOUNG and for avoiding surprise deaths, but they couldn't make you immortal, just long-lived, iirc.

>>97223626
You can clone and transfer conciousness into it, yes. That is what some do. But not all. Some prefer the even safer and more permanent version.

>>97223626
Hehehe. Boner