This is poolroom etiquette. Nobodies especially, know to stay out of the action's way.
My point is that even top players playing pool often doesn't get much of an audience; no on cares, in relative terms, compared to snooker. No one is camping out overnight a year before a match to buy tickets to watch pool players in the U.S., as they do for snooker in the U.K. Pool has never had millions watching on TV in China as there were for when O'Sullivan played Ding in the 2021 snooker Masters.
I guess "dull" is in the eye of the beholder. I am bored with pool matches that are basically breaking contests, and games that require goofy rules changes to make the 'contests' - as with nine ball: nine on the spot, break box, four balls pocketed or past the head string, etc. Snooker has a complex rule set, that's so, but in its basic form it's a great contest, of difficult potting and safety battles.
I think there are many reasons for the huge, global appeal of snooker. One is certainly gambling. Gambling is legal in the U.K., and bookmakers are often (usually?) sponsors of tournaments, since tobacco companies were barred from advertising. While gambling is illegal in China, it is still wildly popular, and integral to many aspects of Asian culture and family life. Another aspect of snooker that I think is a factor in its global appeal is that the game is essentially the same everywhere you go. There's only
one game: snooker! Pool, on the other hand, has innumerable games played on the same equipment: eight, nine, ten ball, 14.1, bank, one-hole, etcetera, etcetera. And, there is a single equipment standard, unlike pool's variable pocket specifications, from 'tournament cut' to 'buckets,' and the almost separate 'branches' of pool that are represented by 'standard' 9' tables and bar boxes. Pool is splintered. While people play snooker on tables smaller than 12', and with six or ten reds instead of fifteen, it is basically a scaled-down version of the same game.
Yes, there's English pool, blackball, etc., but those compare to U.S. pool games, while snooker stands alone and the most globally popular, most watch, and best financed billiard game.