I think everyone loves whatever breed they have had good experiences with.
My very first and second horses were Arabians, wonderful trail horses! I have a neighbor with gaited horses, and to her, they are the only kind of horses to own. I have another neighbor with QH's, and to her, they are the only breed to own!
Me, well, I just love a good individual horse. My best trail horse EVER is a BLM Mustang!
I also just recently bought my first Foxtrotter and I haven't had a chance to really get to know her well because we've had so much snow, mud and ice. But she is going to be awesome this summer because I will finally be able to keep up with the gaited horse gal!
And of course I have an outstanding Paint gelding that is a retired trail horse. Many, many wonderful years of trail riding on him.
And the two worst horses I have ever owned were a Paint mare and an Arab/QH cross gelding. The mare taught me never to buy for color or buy two horses together! :-(
I have preferences for body type, but when it comes to picking a trail horse, I go by the individual not the breed. Who would have ever thought I would have regained my confidence (after the two bad horses mentioned above) with a BLM Mustang? I never would have dreamed it, but he was a total confidence builder! He has had tons of good training though, as he is also an x-roping horse.
So I suspect folks will pick whatever breed they have had good luck with, but really, it's the individual, not the breed. When I had the two Arabians, I caught a lot of flack from the QH owning girls who I boarded with. But they had problems with their horses just like everyone else, and my Arabians took me everywhere I wanted to go and safely too.