I believe (intrusive, as they usually are) LLs are so prevalent in C applications mainly because they are the simplest-ever list structure where insertion and deletion of items is just a no-brainer to implement in a couple lines of C macros. They are also inherently self-describing (ie. you don't need to pass around anything except one pointer).

And this is totally fine in many places. However, when the list is frequently (ie. performance is relevant) used, then it's likely that a LL is not the right choice. And usually one notices that in these cases no LL is used. For example, one might use a LL for a list of drivers, while eg. directory entries will be kept in a hash-table, tree or trie.