I have been riding upright bikes since I was a kid. I am not interested in road biking and I never have been. I personally don't like the hunched down position and prefer to sit as upright as possible. I am more the commuter, grocery getter and errand runner on a bike. For me a bike is primarily a utility vehicle. I like the exercise but I am not doing it because of the exercise only, but because I enjoy being outdoors and just love to cruise around.
My most recent upright commuter is actually a bike I bought new 23 years ago and had it professionally fitted back then. But this was when I was a lot younger and and lot lighter. Now with arthritis in my joints and spine I noticed more pain in my upper back after riding several days.
I just "blindly" purchased two recumbents just to see if they would work better for my back. One is a 16 year old Lighting Phantom and the other one an around 20 year old bikeE. For the past 4 weeks I have been riding both of them at a total of around 300 miles.
And yes they are a lot better for my back. But hard on my knees. lol. Also it is flat here where I live so no uphill climbing. Would I want to do it with recumbent? Probably not because you cannot use your body weight to support the force on your pedals.
So long story short: They work for me for where I live and for what I use the bikes for. But they are for sure not everyone's cup of tea. And I am for sure not trying to convince anyone to move to recumbents.