actually, a lot of them did find the preaching of Jesus was better there...
and a lot return to the Catholic church later, when the Catholic church gets rid of the PC “Jesus loves you no matter what and let’s all hold hands and be happy” types and goes back to preaching Jesus and the “hard” lessons that religion is supposed to answer (why is there death? Why do we suffer? Why are we prone to sin, and what can we do if we have sinned?).
Better than the alternative, which is fuzzy Newage stuff.