Operatic bass, here…
The short answer to this question (and the parallel question of why sopranos are far more popular than mezzo-sopranos and contraltos in the opera world) is pretty simple: the visceral thrill of high notes.
Disregarding it’s many other aspects for the moment (drama, beautiful music, etc.), opera is first and foremost a spectacle, and people appreciate most what they deem to be most impressive (i.e. least attainable or familliar to them).
I have great high notes. But I’m a bass, and because of the color and timbre of my voice, my high notes don’t sound high in the same way that a tenor’s high notes do for him. They don’t have the the high-wire “will he make it” taughtness and pinpoint ring that characterizes a tenor’s (or soprano’s) high C, for instance.
Also, the highest notes of my singing voice are attainable by just about anyone - they may not sing them well, or in a way that they could do over and over or sustain, but they can produce those pitches. We’re talking about F or F# above middle C, for instance.
But that’s not true for tenors. A genuine high C, for instance, is not a pitch most men can produce at all without resorting to falsetto. Even tenors struggle with it. That counts for a lot when it comes to impressing people - and impressing people has a lot to do with what’s popular in opera.
Also, a tenor’s high notes are outside of the normal speaking range for the male voice. No one talks up there unless they are speaking in falsetto or impersonating a woman. Not true for lower voices like mine - there are plenty of men who talk quite high in their voices, even up to F or F# above middle C, which is about where operatic music tops out for the Bass voice.
Because of that, a bass’s high notes still sound somewhat familiar to listeners - more like a spoken voice. They can identify with the sound.
But once the tenor gets up into the A, B-flat, C (above middle C) range, it’s an entirely unfamiliar sound to most people - one they can’t identify with making.