You need to distinguish between "operating systems software" and "application software". The operating system is the software that runs the most fundamental of computing tasks. Application software is the software the primary reason for which they buy a computer. Generally speaking, people don't install an operating system for the sake of running an operating system, they install an operating system as the means to allow the application software to function on the computer hardware.
These people who are interested in implementing "systems software" (the fundamental computing software) are merely another niche within the extensive world of programming and computation.