Back in the day, when John Browning was still a young man, one of the issues with both lever and pump guns was that they needed very precise machining to make (and keep them functional). This is particularly true before the invention of smokeless powder--repeating BP cartridge firearms have a host of issues modern arms do not have.
They also required more material to make--and back in those days, labor was cheap and the material was expensive.
You can build a bolt gun with less material, and with fewer parts needing the maximum machining precision.
Now, as machining and industrial processes improved, the variety and kinds of firearms multiplied. But, if you only need one shot at a time, repeating arms are less required in the hunting community. And firearms that cost less, over-the-counter, were would always be more popular.
So, some of this is that, 100, 150, years ago, things were very different. Now, the labor is expensive and the material is not. We can build almost anything now and have it be reliable.