Some of those plugins are popular because they come with the package.
I wonder how many people would actually download Hello Dolly or Akismet, would they be at all popular if they were not included in the .zip file? I just downloaded it right now to check again.
Yes both Akismet and Hello Dolly are there.

The smaller players get drowned by the bigger players.

I use AntiSpam Bee by the way instead of Akismet. Yes I did fork Hello Dolly to show Spock quotes (Star Trek, not the doctor).

Yoast SEO is popular because whenever you ask for SEO plugin advice…….Yoast SEO is the one. Forget the other players. Over the years I tried Rank Math, Slim SEO and AIOSEO.

Same for Security plugin. Same for other categories.

The usual: Only (xyz) is the one you should use. Rarely can you have a discussion of the pros and cons of each plugin.

People download because others just mention the name.