I think it is pretty clear that the reason inheritance is so prevalent is because it is a superficially good sounding idea, which again and again is being put in front of people.
I am sure that many, many people have had the experience of a professor tell them a nice sounding story about purely hierarchical data and went on thinking that this is the way data should be modeled.
Thankfully I believe that nowadays many people have understood what works and what doesn't work in OOP and we can actually try to get away from that model of data.
This is exactly what I've seen and I think a lot came from java and C++ before it. Ironically C++ is a fantastic language now to use now while avoiding inheritance.
In the late 90s, 2000s and maybe even now, people see inheritance and think that it makes sense. They make the vehicle, the car, the sedan and then get stuck, when all they really needed was an x and y point and a velocity.
I don't know about other colleges, but when I teach my students inheritance, I tell them right away that it's a pretty bad idea. And that they will learn better ways in the next semester.
I can't speak for what has happened since I left university, but when I was a student there you got to here about cars, who are also vehicles, dogs, who are also animals and similar stuff. Which has "limited" applicability of how inheritance works in real software systems.
I am sure that many, many people have had the experience of a professor tell them a nice sounding story about purely hierarchical data and went on thinking that this is the way data should be modeled.
Thankfully I believe that nowadays many people have understood what works and what doesn't work in OOP and we can actually try to get away from that model of data.