Maybe the majority never knew any better? I'm thinking, when black switches appeared, everyone started buying such keyboards and kind of got used to the linearity.
I tried, and within five minutes the keyboard went back into its box...
I'm on this borderline failing, filthy bigass (it's so long I can't really game on it properly with my hands spread apart, grr) Chicony keyboard from ages ago, and I just could never find any viable replacement :(
And the regular height "mechanics" are just way too tall for me :(