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In the first place I enjoy mecha in itself for its imagination and visual appeal. In that sense I am a mecha fan. Animation is particularly suited to show off mechanical design that would be (near) impossible or to expensive to create with live action. For me its similar to enjoying a industrial design like a concept car or architecture.
As pointed out earlier by Eater of all, mecha, like moe, is a theme and not a genre. It primarily affects the visual element of a show. It's a non starter but who doesn't like good characterisation and/or storytelling?
That said, in the last decade the rise of the one cour format, the character focus of and narative breakdown in late night anime have made mecha a safe heaven for storytelling. Two or more cour formats more common in (high budget) mecha shows gives more time to develop a plot. Machines and conflict provide raw material to build a story around. While anime on daily life tend to emphasize social interaction.
Unfortunately this difference gets often abused in discussions like those on "serious vs shallow anime", elitism, character focus, moe and the fallicious A/B type otaku argument. Imo it creates misconceptions and can induce a siege mentality in other anime fans that turns them off mecha.
Mecha is very varried and unfortunately there is also quite a bit of intolerance towards mecha that targets not only traditional fanbase but also other audiences like kids, women or otaku. I have to admit that I catch myself occasionally falling for this one as the imo forced inclusion of highschool settings or fetish characters are pet hates of mine, while they do help the shows popularity. Still seeing the amount of abuse for example Gundam Age got before anything was shown for simply being aimed at a younger audience (like most of the older TV series) made my head shake.
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