Many GPU miners jumped in as soon as ASIC miners were kicked out. But that then raised Monero network hash power and raised difficulty. So profits were not so good anymore. But, but, but. At least some of this miners got the clear message that Monero care about them and did not leave no matter if there is soe x coin more profitable at this point. That combined with positive press about it for sure build some hype or is still building it.
It's exactly what I meant. But Monero difficulty is still low (see https://www.coinwarz.com/difficulty-charts/monero-difficulty-chart) and it's still the most profitable coin to mine with AMD RX cards which are very popular (see http://whattomine.com/ for 570 or 580 cards). The community really took the right decision here!
