
Originally Posted by
JumpingJack
You basically answered your own question.
You might as well ask, why do some people like the colour red while others prefer blue?
Why do some people like rugby while others prefer cricket?
Why do some like really spicy food and others don't?
It depends on a number of things, as you said, tradition, familiarity etc. Usually to do with culture and things you might have experienced growing up.
Someone growing up listening to Mozart will undoubtedly have different tastes from someone who listened to Schoenberg, or Miles Davis, or Ravi Shankar etc.
Through experience, people become accustomed to certain things and accept them as normal (good/bad, right/wrong). Much like language and dozens of cultural traits which most people take for granted without thinking about. This isn't specific to music theory (you can read all sorts of details about acoustics and how sound works, but ultimately, the reason why one thing is preferred over another is to do with taste).