"Again, I'm not attacking, but why do certain people seem to like it so much?"
I can tell you why I do JL. These areas were built out in 1996-2002, so they are newer and both my wife and I prefer newer home construction. They run along the foothills, which is also nice. Both were nicely planned and have good outdoor spaces and nice amenities. The schools serving both areas are great as well. NP and parts of NW Pointe are guard-gated, so the areas feel safer and you get to keep out the riff-raff a bit. Personally, NP isn't quite as high on my list as the lots tend to be smaller and its very hard to get a kid into the neighborhood elementary there. They have been overflowing to other elementary schools for some time...
I work close to the 5 in Irvine, so my commute from NP or NW Pointe is 5 minutes down Jamboree. The wife works west of the 405 so its a bit of a haul for her. Since she teaches at Uni, she doesn't want to live in any area served by her school, so that rules out TR for us even if we could/would afford it.