If you are from a very cold winter area and supper wet places, you won’t see a lot of stucco because to some degree it absorbs water, which if it freezes will trash the weak/inflexible bonds in the plaster. I think now there are sealants/impregnators for this and you start to see stucco in more places. Traditional stucco is not good to paint, so that’s a draw back. People still do it, and we can sort of get away with it here because San Diego is so dry.

Other than that , it’s cheap, applies very quickly, fairly sturdy to weather and pests, generally long lasting, pretty good at sound dampening, and in our desert region , doesn’t look bad with the right design and possible accents of other materials.

I live in a windy area, my neighbor went with lap siding when he built. Even with code required dual pane windows and beautiful heavy doors you can hear the wind roaring during a santa ana condition. My house, which has stucco is pretty quiet.