The popularity is now mainly based around the software support and the product lifecycle.
With a lot of other SBC (single board computers) you're lucky to get a very of the Linux Kernal which works in the first place. The likelyhood it will get upstreamed or kept up-to-date with upstream is basically zero in most cases. Raspberry Pi has great software support and the original Pi 1 has only just become end-of-life and unsupported by Raspberry Pi OS at the end of last year.
There is also clarity on when the hardware will be produced until. For the Pi 5 for example they've commited to it still being produced until at least 2036.
Those together mean that if you're using it in industrial, educational, or embeded settings then you can depend on the board lasting a good while longer than other options which might become insecure and useless before the hardware itself fails.
This is slightly less of an issue for hobbyist who are running Homelabs or personal projects on SBCs.
With a lot of other SBC (single board computers) you're lucky to get a very of the Linux Kernal which works in the first place. The likelyhood it will get upstreamed or kept up-to-date with upstream is basically zero in most cases. Raspberry Pi has great software support and the original Pi 1 has only just become end-of-life and unsupported by Raspberry Pi OS at the end of last year.
There is also clarity on when the hardware will be produced until. For the Pi 5 for example they've commited to it still being produced until at least 2036.
Those together mean that if you're using it in industrial, educational, or embeded settings then you can depend on the board lasting a good while longer than other options which might become insecure and useless before the hardware itself fails.
This is slightly less of an issue for hobbyist who are running Homelabs or personal projects on SBCs.