I think a lot of the reason is that most magic sites, like theory11, are dedicated to closeup card magic first, coins second, and everything else after that. Unfortunately, everything else tends to come in small, rare spurts.
I love performing with ropes, and I used to do crazy man's handcuffs to open my birthday party shows. I still perform it when I see two rubber bands together, like at work.
A close friend has some of the most fun spongeball routines I've ever seen, with sponges appearing under people's arms, in their pockets, and ending with an actual clown nose appearing on his face. He's got a bar version using blue sponges...you can imagine the presentational ideas using blue balls. There's so much to this prop, and say what you will, people love them.
For fire, look at Jay Sankey's recent work. He's got so much material involving fire it's ridiculous.
It's not dead, just not in our faces as much!
Pj