Aqua popularity

Well, I finished the anime, and when I finished, I went to read the light novel. Until then, I hadn't had much contact with the fandom, so I didn't know how popular each character was.

My favorite character was Darkness, that was true during the anime and continued to be so throughout the light novel, although I felt the author sidelined her at a certain point in the story.

When I joined the subreddit, I knew Megumin was the most popular by a wide margin, but I thought Darkness or Kazuma were the second most popular. But actually, it's Aqua.

I really like Darkness and I wish she was the most popular of all, but I understand that Megumin is overwhelmingly more popular and its ok.

But why is AQUA so much more popular than darkness? Like, look at the number of members in the darkness and Aqua subreddits, Aqua simply has more. The coolest part of the Darkness arc was adapted into anime, and most people still prefer Aqua, who is useless and messy?

I'd like to know why. I don't understand why people like Megumin so much, even though she has a cool backstory. But I've already accepted that she's simply super popular because she's cute, and that's it. But why is Aqua more popular than Darkness???????

Like, I don't understand. Is she funny, but only for that reason? Or is it because she's cute and pretty? Darkness is both of those things too. Besides seeing the author set aside Darkness and give a happy ending to the rest of the quartet, I also have to see that Darkness is even less popular than AQUA?

Seriously, I understand Megumin being popular, but why is Aqua the second most popular?! What does she have? Like, if you like Aqua, is there something I'm missing? She's just messy and irresponsible. I don't mean to offend anyone who likes her, but I want to understand it legitimately. I was as disappointed by Darkness's lack of popularity as I was surprised that Aqua was more popular than her and To be the second most popular of the show.

Explain to me why you (Aqua fans) like Aqua and where her popularity comes from. Like, I really want to understand because I was surprised by this. Or is this just another example of Darkness's lack of popularity? Like, why didn't Darkness become at least as popular as Aqua?