Back when reps were elected from 3-seat districts, each party had a rep from almost every district, so they had to listen to the needs of all districts. On the other hand, even under PR a conservative may safely neglect the needs of interest groups that are strongly liberal. PR can reduce regionalism, but it does not eliminate pork. An electoral system must be understood by the citizens to ensure they accept the election results. This favors simple systems over more complicated ones.
Most voters accept the plurality rule because they think they understand it.
Perhaps our problem in achieving electoral reforms is that we want everyone to share our ideas about voting rules. We need to advertise results not mechanisms. Many moderates and centrists think electoral reform with PR would just increase the representation and power of fringe groups. That cannot be said of electoral reform with ensemble rules, so this reform may be more popular.