I think it isn't more popular, because it's not an effective method.
When it comes to effectiveness, it's not just about whether a method could work in theory, but how realistic it is for a person to execute it successfully. For a person to
manually tie a ligature around their neck tight enough to constrict blood flow effectively and cause the person to die is highly unrealistic in my opinion. Consider that it's
a lot easier to pass out by partial hanging – because gravitation also works in our favour – yet a lot of people can't even do that. I don't know what makes people think they'll be able to pull a ligature tight enough by using their hand. The problem is not that it's physically impossible or that it requires a lot of strength, but that our natural instincts prevent us from doing it.
I think ligature strangulation is also riskier. In full – or even partial – hanging, if someone passes the threshold and loses consciousness (and remains unconscious), it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll die. As the body goes limp, pressure on the neck only increases. However, with ligature strangulation,
everything depends on how tight you pull the ligature
initially. If you accidentally don't pull it tight enough, you could end up in a bad situation. I wouldn't want to take that risk.
Don't quote me on this, but I also believe that it's an extremely rare method of suicide. When I search for it, all I find are some isolated case reports. Most cases of ligature strangulation are
not suicides but homicides or erotic play gone wrong. And legends about Chinese factory worker kids using this method and whatnot are just that... Urban legends.
The reason it's not removed and it's included in the
resources compilation probably has more to do with the fact that someone wrote a comprehensive post on it rather than the method's effectiveness. I'm not familiar with every method listed there, but I can't imagine all of them are very effective. That's just a list of various resources. I wouldn't place too much significance on whether a method is included there or not.
My personal opinion is that it's a bad method. I would even call it a non-method. According to statistics, it's hardly ever used. There must be a reason for that. Even on this forum, all the discussions about it are just empty, theoretical discussions. Good for spending time, but otherwise useless. I haven't seen anyone using it successfully. But then again, that's true for a lot of other methods discussed here.
Also, consider the fact that even the person (
@anagram) who wrote the
notes on ligature strangulation – so they had good knowledge of it and intended to use it – eventually
decided to use full suspension. This perfectly shows how bad this method is.
They not only decided not to use it, but literally called ligature strangulation
"bullshit" (see quotes below), and said they
regretted making that thread (the one I linked above, and which is also included in the resources compilation).