Marketing and sexy companions.
It's a similar thing how Dragon Age: Origins made waves, Morrigan being sexy (Also apparently Alistair) draws in the general population.
Add a dash of simplicity (DA:O did this via Warrior and Rogue classes being 90% "I auto attack the bad guy") through watered down 5e ruleset and you don't drive off the players who aren't interested in hardcore RPG's.
It is turn-based compared to rtwp.
Personally, that's a benefit for me. I abhor RTWP as it often feels like it just combines all the worst aspects of TB and RT into one awful system.
