Really? Yeah, I get that it not being a microtransaction-pile-of-garbage probably helped, but did you play it? Seriously, nobody at the beginning could have thought it was good. After the buzz, quality isn't relevant.
The problem is the ranking algorithms. At least on iOS, the relative ranking list doesn't go below 300, so if you're below that, you're invisible. But, if you crack that, you're off to the races (that's how I stumbled on it).
The bigger problem is that rankings don't decay. Candy Crush should be continually falling in the rankings if it isn't growing in order to make way for something new that is.
However, that isn't what Apple wants. Apple wants things that PAY. So, they want their ranking algorithms to keep the things that gross the most money as high as possible as long as possible. So, Apple isn't even remotely interested in "fixing" the problem.
And we come back to, "The walled garden sucks for the consumers."