Why is diesel so popular? Is it really better?

Trucks aside. Industrial and Farm vehicles aside. Even towing aside ... Is diesel definitely better than gasoline? Seems to be growing in popularity and I'm trying to understand why. My use case would be a family hauler mid-size SUV. I'm a hunter and fisherman so I always get AWD or 4WD, but I don't care about low range power. I care about reliability and fuel efficiency-- that's it -- not performance. Is Diesel only definitely better when you need serious power?