I think around here part of it is the DL-withdral-syndrom.
For some reason, this entire region is totaly obsessed with Dragonlance and Greyhawk (Myself included). Those are the two "big hitters", always have been. FR actualy is sorta lackluster around here, same with darksun and spelljammer and so forth (although I like the latter two). Heck, SAGA even sold well here (I'm under the impression, given how little was ever done with the SAGA system that that isn't ususual). So when something by the major Dragonlance players started hitting the shelves, it got sucked up QUICK. And perhaps half the reason we like it is SS reminds us a lot of the best of Dragonlance, without the kender
(I never liked what the kender turned out to be... a race of mentaly retarded hyperactive THINGS. Tas was never like that in the Chronicals, and I've always liked how Tas was portrayed there... Sure, he was a kleptomaniac at times, and he was funloving, but he could be very serious when the situation called for it, and actualy quite cold blooded at times (Heck, how he killed the goblin in like the first five pages of the first book has always stuck in my mind. He was actualy quite wise about alot of things, which would come from the wanderlust kender get. But then they got turned from a basicly serious race into a race of comic relief, which I did not like.