The vast majority of Linux distros have also also never had a lot of casual desktop users outside of developers and server admins. Expanding consumer mindshare costs money, and it that has been Ubuntu's main priority since day one. Debian on the other hand has long prioritized stability/reliability as a good workhorse OS. Neither are bad goals, but it's disingenuous to imply that they are the same and should thus take the same paths to accomplishing them.