Cactus Music
I think a major factor is the price points too. You'll get a lot of customers if your DAW is cheaper than the competition.
It seems the poll is close to accurate as far as a random poll can be. Not sure what the user base of that forum is, real musicians VS producers or electronic stuff as that will certainly make a difference. I voted 3 times so the poll was not very well executed. All I needed was a fresh computer.
One DAW caught my attention, MuLAb, and it was only $70. And the Demo looks like you could finish a song on it to try it out.. I tried to download the demo but each time ( 5 times 2 different computers) the file was deemed corrupted.. So much for that company, not even sure how they made it on the list.
Reading the blurb about each DAW and looking at the price points it's easy to see why we have made a good choice with Sonar. Cubase is the only other DAW I use from time to time and I can see why it got good placement.
The website has a close affiliation with Computer Music Magazine. The magazine is based in Europe. Virtually all the masterclass music production features they have every single month are "in the box" type of dance, etc music production.
They include things like sample packs and loops virtually every month also. I've gotten valuable tools and information through that source, but as someone that works primarily with physical instruments (and augments productions with some VSTis), I'd say I'm not the primary target audience.
The response to the poll based on this and the sales of DAWs related to that, makes perfect sense to me.
Reaper is as high as it is because of the cost factor you mention.