boxers made the top 10!

Good point, but either way, pitbulls don't make these lists and that hasn't hurt their popularity.

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Well, no, but they're splashed across the news constantly as "bad" (i.e., macho) dogs, which greatly helps their popularity among certain types.

I think we give shady breeders too much credit for actually doing research on these type of things.  

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I don't think they research much of anything - but there's a lot more to it than that.  The AKC news release will go out over the media; marketing groups will see that Boxers are among the more popular breeds of dogs, and so will start using more of them in commercials, movies, magazine ads, etc. (this is already happening; ten years ago it was very unusual to see a Boxer in any kind of non-breed-specific advertising; today there's a Target ad aired I think nationwide which has a Boxer puppy in it); people will see the ads and think the puppy looks "cute", and decide they want one just like it, but conscientious breeders don't have a ready supply on hand so they'll search elsewhere and find the 'oops' litter or the 'we just wanted her to experience being a mother' litter in the paper or online; they'll buy their puppy, and because of the big response to the ad the breeder will decide they might as well breed another litter, since everyone wants one of their pups; some of the people who buy those pups will have the same idea, because they think they had a hard time finding a Boxer and so they might as well make it easier for others to do so (and some will decide they want to 'get back what they paid' for the puppy or even 'make some money off of her' - or him, in the case of a stud dog, which is less-involved on their end).  And so it becomes a supply and demand situation with both increasing over time.

In the mean time, Boxers are being bred without regard to health or temperament, and purchased without knowledge of these issues, and so are dying at a young age, or being labelled 'vicious', or being dumped at shelters or rescues because they're "too wild" as 18-month old adolescents - and so you get "puppy lemon laws" and Boxers added to "dangerous breeds" lists and mandatory sterilization laws.  Because of these things, demand will start to decline, the breeders will have a harder time selling their puppies and will have to hang on to them longer, and so might not breed that next litter they had planned; and animal rights legislation will drive home breeders out of business and the only avenue of supply will be the pet store or the shelter (rescues, which are mostly home-based, will also have been driven out of business by the AR laws).  It's far better, really, for all involved if buyers are educated about Boxers before purchasing a puppy; if they know what health issues are common and often fatal in the breed, and how conscientious breeders try to avoid them; if they know that Boxers are intelligent and mischievous and self-entertaining, and that they have long puppyhoods; if they understand that starting out as a benevolent leader and teaching good manners right from the start will be far more beneficial than letting the 'cute puppy' get away with murder and then trying to force a change in behavior in the adult; all of these things will help to decrease the demand for puppies from careless breeders, while not threatening the availability of well-bred puppies from conscientious breeders.

(And that's far more than I'd planned to type, but I've been inundated with the slew of AR laws introduced across the country in the new legislative sessions over the past week or two so this has been on my mind!)