Then why pre-pubescent bodies? Why is it so popular?

I always thought the lolis were a deviant side dish, not the main course.

Cuteness plays this factor. Oppai lolis are popular for both reasons.

Well, you can get plenty of "cuteness" in hentai that doesn't require the characters to have bodies of pre-pubescent children...... or are outright child characters.

Just saying.

To be fair, some other popular boorus either don't allow loli, or lock it behind "premium accounts" (if such an upgrade is even enabled). I can appreciate mature bodies too, but you can find that anywhere, so Gelbooru definitely has its own niche that keeps people coming back to it.

Gelbooru serves a very exotic dish even illegal in some places for free. That attracts people.

Well, this is just a guess, but the sudden increase of images on gelbooru in 2020 was due to the fact that it was in that year that the site "rule34" banned "lolis", making gelbooru the best option for that content. "rule34.paheal" I don't count it because its criteria are "drawing +18: optional".

They reallowed lolis as long as it's not toddlercon.
That site has the worst search tags ever.

It is an absolute disaster. And it is because they allowed people to create and use any fucking tag they desired.

Member apostle? I loved that artist. post #1387089 post #1652951 He retired many years ago.

Nice! Got two of my uploads in the top 5 in two years!
2021: post #6217606
2023: post #8251452

I'm not surprised anymore that both of them are about lolis.