They already are very popular. They're embedded in devices from smart home gadgets to washing machines and smart appliances.
The great thing I find about them is, that they are "hackable". Don't want to depend on some weird company and their cloud, especially with long-lasting appliances (which outlast the company cloud or even the whole company)? Just buy something with esp8266/esp32 inside, and there's a high chance, that there is some opensource firmware (tasmota, esphome,....) available.
(disclaimer: some times the "hacking" part involves soldering irons, wires, usb->serial adapters and knowledge of electronics safety, especially with mains powered devices)
It's also great to see how with a little technical know-how, you can avoid paying 100s of dollars for some IoT tech that is reliant on more people buying overpriced hardware for it to work in the future, and instead - go for DIY or cheap hardware (e.g.: SonOff) which gets a huge audience due to their low prices, which guarantees someone like me will spend the time to get it properly supported soon enough...
All of a sudden, the premium product becomes the inferior product, because it will have a smaller market share, and therefore, fewer hackers :-)
The great thing I find about them is, that they are "hackable". Don't want to depend on some weird company and their cloud, especially with long-lasting appliances (which outlast the company cloud or even the whole company)? Just buy something with esp8266/esp32 inside, and there's a high chance, that there is some opensource firmware (tasmota, esphome,....) available.
(disclaimer: some times the "hacking" part involves soldering irons, wires, usb->serial adapters and knowledge of electronics safety, especially with mains powered devices)