Dice Tower appears to be for the majority of gamers who want lighter gaming experiences. A&A is probably not mentioned because it’s impractical for pop gamers. For various reasons, most people can’t consider a game that takes as long as A&A takes. Even more difficult for most people is that the length of the game is uncertain. You can have a four hour game or you might have a ten hour game. If it can’t be finished in a two-hour time frame, then it doesn’t fit into most people’s gaming lives regardless of how much more captivating the epic experience of A&A is compared to shorter games like Catan and Puerto Rico. I assume that for this reason 1941 was created, but I can’t comment as to how well it achieves this presumed objective, as I haven’t played it.
I also think A&A is somewhat odd in that each player has a different country with different starting circumstances. That can also make it less appealing as it can be an awkward group game if you’re forced to take a power that is less interesting.
A&A works well for people living in the same house who can play a round or two, have the space to leave it set up, and then can come back to it whenever they have time again. It also works well for people who can set aside a weekend day. Others play online and don’t even use the physical game. None of these three scenarios fit within most people’s expectations for a board game.