I think you’re missing that lemmy is a pretty tiny slice of the internet and niche(ish) communities either don’t exist or are mostly inactive. Just because something doesn’t seem to be making waves on lemmy, doesn’t mean it isn’t popular. The community for it just isn’t really here (yet).
I installed Linux mint on my laptop the other day because of various sustained long term annoyances with Windows. Despite some minor hiccups it only took about 30 minutes. It’s been such a great experience so far.
My wife and I had to have her 2013 Nissan rogue transmission replaced last year which cost $7k, so I disagree on your point about reliability. -___-
In all seriousness though, I always had the impression that Nissan was known for being the least reliable of the big 3: Toyota, Nissan, Honda
https://steamdb.info/app/553850/charts/
https://steamdb.info/app/39210/charts/
I probably just wouldn’t use lemmy as an indicator of popularity/activity levels.