You typically see darker roasts with larger roasters because it's still approached like a commodity, and darker roasts are easy to achieve consistency with since they don't feature much of the natural flavors of the coffee bean. The whole coffee world was in a bad state until people began taking the stance that certain coffees were better quality, and paying more for them. For the first time it incentivized extra effort from the farmers. Over the last decade or so our understanding of the effects of roasting coffee has grown immensely, and we can objectivley say that there is a specific range before the only thing featured tastes are imparted from the roasting process. Just like it's now common knowledge that you don't burn a good steak if you want to enjoy it for what it is.
I really disagree with the third wave snobbery that the only coffee to be enjoyed is light roast though. There's a pretty wide range that will produce some amazing coffee. Putting them side by side for a cupping is interesting, I personally became more sensitive to roasting too dark after tasting the same beans under different roast profiles, and seeing how quickly the dark range began diminishing complexity, brightness and clarity in my cups. On the other hand, all too frequently I get underdeveloped third wave coffee that is just as unenjoyable as a burnt batch.