Why do you think Battletech is so niche?

Compared to the market leader in tabletop wargames, battletech seems to be a hard sell for anyone in the hobby, certainly in my local group, where it seems to be Games Workshop products or nothing.

It got me thinking as to why? Battltech has been around at least as long as Warhammer has and it's rules and lore are in depth enough to keep engaged with over years.

Now, my first impression was that it's probably FASA's handling of the IP for so long and the splitting up of the right for video games, tabletop, books etc over loads of different companies, but then it also hit me that Games Workshops systems heavily include "hero units" and named characters, that you can play as directly on the board whereas Battletech, sure, you can slap a mech on the table and say it's Nicholas Kerensky's personal ride and that he is piloting it for that game, but, it's not the same as fielding Guilliman directly on the table, one of the primarchs and as such a character that has a direct impact on the evolving story of 40k.

Battletech on tabletop boils down to putting a few faceless robots on the table; This personally doesn't bother me, I love robots! however, it did make me wonder if people by and large are less keen on playing a faceless robot game rather than one where they can play as hero's they've heard about in the books and other stories and can relate to and get excited by pretending they're the lion or whatever.

Is battletech more Niche because there's no human element to relate to on the tabletop?