I think that's how I end up with them. They look so cute, especially as puppies, that people get them as pets and don't realize what they are getting into. I had Bassets for years and years, nearly everyone had the same origin story "We got this cute puppy, now it is a monster". A Basset, cute and cartoonlike as it is, is just a dwarf-form Bloodhound, but with extra deviousness thrown in. My last 3 at full adulthood weighed 80lbs, 75lbs, and 65lbs. I usually try to have at least a pair of hounds (they work better in the field that way), and the Bassets were capable of coming up with complex schemes to accomplish their evil ends. I had a pair that would move several pieces of furniture around in my kitchen so that they could end up atop the counters and kitchen pass-through, working as a team. Devils.
I think a lot of people give up early because they don't know that success is quite likely, as long as you commit to consistency and the correct sort of reinforcement. (Negative conditioning doesn't seem to work well at all with the sorts of dogs I end up with, for example).100s of repetitions? I am inept for sure.
I am of the opinion that most people should not have dogs. I shudder when I hear people baby-talking their "fur babies" and see them letting the dogs run the household.