I'm honestly staggered that some people don't get why a cool-looking massive, super strong and athletic race who don't have a history of being horrible dirtbags and aren't a furry archetype are cool and fairly popular.
I've seen them regularly as PCs since 4E.
It's a very basic He-Man/cool Barbarian/ahistorical Spartan-type fantasy.
I see people calling them vanilla and stuff, but that's the point. Not everyone is like me or you. Not everyone wants a race with a dark and complex history or menacing lore or who looks bizarre. Some people just want a big strong guy from a simple warrior culture who isn't a monster or weird. I feel like people who don't get it aren't trying very hard.
Re: Warforged, I think that is the closest crossover with other races but WF have a very specific history and aren't quite as easy to drop into settings, nor are they huge and in 5Es actual Eberron release they lost the stuff that made them close mechanically.