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It really doesn't surprise me. With so many breeds that fit whatever you are looking for in a chicken, whether it's meat production, egg production, broodiness, exhibition, etc, it doesn't surprise me at all that temperament would be an important quality for narrowing the list down to just one or two (or three or four) breeds. Yes, for some people food production is important. But even for those for whom food production is the main reason for keeping chickens, they also have to tend to these animals on a daily basis and it's a lot less of a chore to care for an animal that has a temperament/personality that you like than one which you do not.
And I think a lot of backyard chicken folk are probably like me. I have a small urban backyard with limited room. The coop we built is big enough for maybe 5-7 standard sized chickens. We did have room to build a larger coop, but we still wouldn't be able to comfortably house more than about 15-20 chickens in our yard at most (and even that many we would be looking at more work than we really want to put into their upkeep to keep their living quarters clean). When I was looking at what breeds to get, we were looking at eggs. We wanted a chicken that would be a good producer of eggs that were at least medium-sized, but preferably large, and able to tolerate hot humid summers and cold winters. The list I came up with had probably 20 breeds on it as potential matches for what we were looking for. That's more chickens than I have room for. So we had to look to other traits to narrow that list down even further. With room for so few chickens and so many options that will fill my needs, temperament is the trait that will draw the line for which birds get to stay and which birds don't. I also have a small child and plan on expanding our family in the next few years, which means it is very important to have chickens that can tolerate the attentions of a small child without becoming too stressed or aggressive.
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