If it wasn't clear, I meant hunhan had less moments than in the beginning and people still shipped them. I didn't mean taohun/xiuhan had less moments than them (if that's what it sounded like). I was also basing it off of fanfiction amount tbh. Hunhan has literal thousands more, especially on AFF. Over 10k more fanfics than the other two. Personally, I liked all Luhan ships bc he was my bias too.
About NCT, I agree!!! New ships are sailing left and right, and I feel like each subgroup will bring a new popular ship to the table lol. And normally I'd agree that relevancy doesn't matter, but isn't that what OP asked for? I don't have any favorite NCT ships yet bc they make it so hard to choose a few and stick with them. I'll probably end up shipping everyone with everyone.
[EDIT] Your comment does read as a little biased though? I was wanting to discuss popularity, not which ships you or I like/dislike as I don't have any NCT ships yet so I was just trying to base it off of what pairs I see other people talk about the most. Same with exo... My OTP is kaibaek lmao and everyone knows they're not popular at all lolol.