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Johann Sebastian Bach established the convention and it has stuck.
It was pleasing, with enough variety to be non-trivial, yet clearly not random, and easily learnt.
Another thing in the pre-computer age is that patterns involving 12, 30 or 60 were often favoured because of the numerous ways they could be subdivided equally ( ie they have several small prime factors).
This also simplifies dance composition (ie choreography) for everything from popsongs, folk dances, ballroom, Latin etc. Musical sequences that don’t follow the pattern are very difficult to dance to (often impossible).
You may have noticed this also affects the success of the top-selling popsongs.
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