Yes, a big reason is #2 gets planted thinking shrub without enough room to grow. There is a very scenic #1 on my daily drive to see the #2s.

First is a Prunus pendula seedling and the second a grafted named cultivar (of P. pendula). It appears many people buy these latter on impulse primarily for the flowers and then become bothered by the branches touching the ground, start cutting them back. With the cocktail umbrella or mushroom shape coming from the biological history of humans arising on the African savannah. Hence a preference for lawns and trees shaped like parasol acacias.

because big box sells the second???

and it has smaller potential ... so you can plant it 2 feet from the corner of the house ... lol

ken

A beauty in Hagerstown, MD, but it was subsequently chopped down.

Another P. pendula seedling. In Japan big ones are treated as revered objects, propped up with posts and bestowed with absurd claims of being thousands of years old.

Over here they get chopped down.

Probably these have long since become effectively extinct commercially in North America because the ethereal beauty of their small pale flowers on the mature tree is not the kind of thing that would show up well in garden center sizes - why would shoppers go for one of these when they can have named cultivars with bigger, darker, even double flowers? On a tree that will always remain small and in scale with something less than acreage?

Here's a recent thread with another weeping cherry of some size:

Front Porch Railing? Opinions Please! (houzz.com)