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The thing is, there's no reason to make the engine into the shape of a wheel. It's neat, and 4 wheel drive is a nice plus, but forcing the design into a particular shape, size and weight means making compromises. Better to build an efficiently shaped, sized and weighted motor, and connect the output to the wheel. This reduces unsprung weight too.
Perhaps they are cheaper to produce than a motor, gears, differential, and axle? If so, they make sense in lower performance EV applications, but when competing against ICE vehicles, EVs need every performance advantage they can get. Certainly it's not cheaper to make 4x hub motors than 2x electric motors and associated drivetrain.
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