I think it's because there's only a tenuous sense of control with things in-between, and to some extent SFHs that have strict HOAs. I mentioned in another comment that although in theory (in the US & Canada anyway) you can buy an apartment or duplex or townhouse, but as far as I'm aware you only gain marginal control over what you can do to modify it if you wanted to, and the advantage to owning largely comes down to owing the bank vs owing a landlord, but otherwise (sometimes even with SFHs without HOAs) you are beholden to the local bureaucracy if you want to make any significant changes condo strata and/or city permits). Seems like buying a non-SFH for any significant amount more than renting the same place is just trading the fear of eviction for the burden of debt, and buying a SFH is just debt+burden but you get a garden or something.

It's not weird, since 99% of rentals are apartments, right?