Maybe because by "wider range" many people understand whatever the trendy stations will feed them - from rap to dad rock, r&b or pop, so they behave as a captive audience? My Spotify must have a reason for always trying to feed me Coldplay although I swear I never (actively) listened to anything from them.
Strangers' preferences can be better than a personalized recommendation, if they are cool strangers.
Last edit: I seem to remember a study that concluded that people who listened to a wider range of music types spent more money, or were more lucrative advertising targets. However, there are fewer of those kinds of listeners.