If Strawberry Shortcake is the show that I remember, I'd say it's not even comparable xD

Pound Puppies is now done by the same animation studio and some of the same staff. It looks OK I guess.

To be concise, ponies are easier to get into as a following because the main characters and world are better sketched out and lend themselves to fanmusic, fanart, games, ask blogs, events and so on.

The show's music is really stand-out as well.

Subjectively I prefer the animation and writing of MLP to the other shows. I find in particular Strawberry Shortcake assumes it only has a young audience, whereas ponies tries to be smarter than that.

We have a pony thread for this kind of question. I'll answer in more detail if needed.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=141117&page=207

Pound Puppies looks okay honestly (or it could be that i'm a sucker for Jon Dimaggio's voice work, the voice of Jake the Dog and Bender after all), but My Little Pony has that magic touch of attention to detail and the kind of humor pacing that made so many of the Cartoon Cartoons of that era great (which makes sense, as its staffed by veterans of the Cartoon Cartoons era).

When the artists who make a show really care, it shows. MLP's creators care, just like the studios behind, say, Avatar: The Last Airbender or Adventure Time care.

Why? Well, for a few reasons. First, there was an article that specifically mentioned Friendship is Magic as a reason why cartoons were getting worse as they shifted towards focusing on promoting toys. This caused a large reaction from people who like cartoons who then watched the show and actually enjoyed it. 

Then, we have Lauren Faust. I think she probably gets too much focus (seriously, there are a lot of people who helped turn the show into what it is today), but a lot of people also loved Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Codename: Kids Next Door, and The Iron Giant. These are all things that Lauren worked on in some fashion.

Combine these things, and you'll get plenty of people to look more at MLP than the others. Then, with this growing fandom drawing more people to it, it will get more exposure. Then, add in all of the content produced by the fandom, and you'll see that there is a much higher incentive for people to be more vocal about MLP because there's so much stuff to talk about even when waiting for a new season to start. 

However, let's look at why people actually like the show. 

They like the art style. It's bright, colourful, and unashamedly cheerful. They like the animation, which is pretty darn good. They like the characters. I thought I was going to hate Rarity when I first saw the show, but they portrayed her character well enough to actually make me like her. They like the stories. Seriously, changelings and Discord. Also, you should watch this fan made trailer. Then there's also the music. Believe it or not, many find it to be pretty darn good.

So, you have cartoon with a good art style, animation, characters, music, and pretty decent and fun stories. Add in the mythology and various cultural references (which are over exaggerated by many fans...), and you've got yourself a pretty darn entertaining show. I think it's greater than the sum of its parts, which is impressive because the parts are already impressive on their own. 

I can't comment on the quality of the other shows, as I have not seen them.

I think by your description, you picked some terrible episodes to start off with. Look Before You Sleep and The Show Stoppers are not my favourite episodes by a long shot. You should try something like this. Or, this and this if you want something a bit longer. 

That's fine. Not everyone can like every thing.

There's other reasons outside the show why people like it as well.

Fan music:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PCEp8z7FNg 
Fighting game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiwZvPKhsDo

For me MLP took a bit of getting used to. Wasn't until i had watched enough episodes to get a feel for the characters that i started enjoying it.

Equally, i have a tough time getting into Young Justice. The time skip into the second season threw me, because i didn't see much of the first.