I think people tried out the Raspberry Pi 4 because it was just powerful enough to run desktop and there weren't cheap desktop options. Now there are plenty of cheap desktop options and while Pi 5 is more usable, it can't compare.

But the Pi was popular before that for fun things. It still compares well for fun things unless trying to do AI. For me, the Pi 5 isn't that interesting because I don't need the performance, and Pi 4 or Pi 3 will get the job done without the power hassle.