This has been discussed several times, here and on the MeLabs forum.
I suspect hobbyists on a budget go to Arduino or something else that doesn't cost anything.
8bit uC with a couple of hundreds byte of RAM isn't "cool" when you can have a 32bit 1GHz multicore CPU with a Gig of RAM to read your DS1812 and turn on a LED.
The hobbyists who do use PBP generally know what they're doing so they don't need much help. Those who do need help come here, ask their question or request for working code and then their gone - until the next project surfaces.
Professionals tend to use C - just face it, C is THE language for embedded stuff and mentioning BASIC usually makes professionals cringe because they think of some old interpreted BASIC they played with in the 70's.
Those professionals that do use PBP don't visit the forum because they don't need the help it provides - with the odd exception. Why? Because they generally can't post their code since it's not theirs (but their employers) to post.

So it really is up to all of the forums users, (you, me and everybody else) to pitch in if we want to see "traffic".
Ask questions, provide answers, post well written and documented code examples etc. Don't expect everybody else to do it.

/Henrik.