It leaves me wondering why tyres/tires on my hotter cars are twice as wide as the old days.
Speculating here, but perhaps, fatter tires to handle more ponies. Material limits still apply; we don't want to shred this rubber in one go. With lower shear forces per width of rubber material, we also have more choices when picking the rubber material for most desirable coefficient of friction, for example. So it's still all connected.
And the threads don't deform as much in a turn.