For sure, to the average person off the street, steel is a hard sell for bike frames.
Weight is an issue, but there might be another factor combined with it.
Simple, high impact visuals are important. The ongoing trend (onslaught?) of oversized everything has created a massive headtube. To visually match, the crowns of forks are of the same diameter. Steel does not like large, steel likes dainty. Large makes steel too stiff and too heavy. Al and crabon like Large, Al and crabon do not gain much weight from upsizing and gain massive stiffness. The upper models have wide crown crabon forks so the lower end models have to match the visuals as much as possible. A light and compliant steel fork would look silly on that fat head tube IMO; a fat steel fork would ride like an Al fork but weight 3x as much.
Interestingly, the oversized (bigger, more logos) trend was largely started by Cannondale, who were a pioneer of the Al fork. Below is a picture of someone else's beautiful Cannondale with a compliant and light steel fork as well as a pic of my Cannondale with fat Al fork.
