Why is DarkRP Popular?

I think the popularity of DarkRP is because people make the big world of Garry's Mod more fun in reality.

because it is the most optimized game for that I think

It was good when you found a good server. The original gameplay loop used to look like this

Join Server -> Join Gang group or Police -> Do hijinks around found, the money isn't really important but it helps to buy stuff like guns and whatever. -> Do massive raid where everyone is shooting everyone, having a jolly gay time -> raid ends, everyone goes back to plotting.

What it is now

Join server -> Spam as many printers as you can -> get raided ->kill raider -> banned for failrp (you wouldn't shoot a home intruder)

Im not even joking when I said this happened to me.

also it reminds me some of the RP server have a very restricted registration on their forum, does anyone have an idea how to bypass this ?

DarkRP is very fun , and the sanbox aspect in it is very cool , DarkRPs servers are big and more fun to play

Depends on the person i suppose. But you're right, it doesnt feel like RP at all. Mods on some server are ass. I guess people still play it cuz you can do stupid stuff with people and build, make money which some people find entertaining by itself (weird lads). I dont thing the DarkRP gamemode will die anytime soon.

I wouldn't say all servers are bad, I've played on a couple of smaller servers and are way more fun than bigger ones that are all chaos.

I think DARKRP is popular because of the fun interractions, and it's overall presence in the GMOD community

I think the whole "life/roleplay" aspect has always been popular for games that are sandboxy. Look at Arma 3, Life servers have taken over. That and a mix of DarkRP being quite literally the OG gamemode of GMod.

must be the sandbox aspect of it i guess along with being able to do very stupid shit