I would say because of the following:
1. Microsoft is very well integrated while used with Microsoft products ;
2. Though using SQL Server, a free Express edition is available and can be used to host sites ;
3. With the .NET Framework coming through, Microsoft gained a lot of terrain over its competitors in schools an so, thus making SQL Server a well known database engine ;
4. Microsoft products works better with other Microsoft products ;
5. There are two ways of licensing SQL Server, per client (CAL), and per server processors or something like that. For sites hosts, perhaps is there an advantage of using SQL Server this way ;
6. Other database engines such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, etc. all have their syntaxic differences, thus making SQL Server TSQL somehow a wise choice as for the number of persons being able to interact with SQL Server more easily ;
7. There might be some other politic related reasons for using SQL Server over other less costly solutions.
I would like to mention that some are using SQL Server, yes, but they use SQL Server Express Edition. Though they are whether aware or not that publishing or commercialising a solution with SQL Server Express Edition makes, according to the EULA of Microsoft for this product, your solution a free solution as well, as the EULA states that you need to provide your solution to your customer, and your customer is free to share your commercial solution with whom who wishes because it is sat on SQL Server Express. Although this is stated, some continue to use SQL Server Express without informing their customers about this information. Most of common clients won't know about this and they will respect their contract with the solution's supplier.
Furthermore, as I think I have above-written, some don't care about the price, but they have political reasons for using commercial products such as SQL Server and other software products. There are some places where the money isn't the most important factor, but service after sale, etc. They want specialized engineers or support teams directly, not necessarily what offers MySQL-like communities.
Hope this enlights a bit.