I’m honestly not that interested in playing him. I want to but—I don’t know his playstyle doesn’t seem that interesting. He seems very gear heavy, where if I don’t have the right gear for him he won’t be good at all.
So if someone can well “Win” me over to make me wanna play him it be a great help 
What made me play Sal? I play every character. Simple as that :p.
Ammo regen and the fact that you can throw 2 grenades for the price of 1
I played as every character as well, though I will say this. I have ditched Gaige/Maya due to…just finding them boring. (Maya’s phaselock is useful, I’ll give her that much.)
Sal was the first character I played in BL2. I had little faith in my abilities, and I’d heard Sal was easy mode, so I picked him. And he was easy, as soon as I got a Rubi.
Maya was the second character I picked, and I found her too difficult and went back to putting 250 hours into Salvador.
I’m in the same boat. While I dragged Salvador to OP8, I similarly do not care for his playstyle, and rarely if ever pick him up. Specifically, Gunzerking isn’t that fun for me. That said, I do enjoy some of his non-gunzerking skills, which lure me back to him on occasion:
I haven’t played BL2 in years, but I liked his mobility and personality. He was the only character I got to level 50 when that was the max and he’s the only character I’ll choose if I play again. His Legendary Gunzerker (I think?) was so much fun with Quads and The Sham. I liked using those Triquetra shotties as well with Tediore pistols for second winds. Geez, I don’t remember anything about this game. Lol
Sally was my first BL2 character and the only character I played for months. I like characters that lose their ■■■■ in battle and go crazy, so he was a natural first pick. I eventually went on to play all characters and enjoy everyone of them.
A few friends and I did a playthrough a couple of years back, where we were all the four non-DLC vault hunters. I did not want to pick Salvador because, to be honest, I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. Salvador was the only unclaimed vault hunter, so I swallowed my pride and chose him anyway.
Since then, I’ve leveled him to 72 and use him to shoot bosses when I’m stressed out.
Goatee, bro
I consider Sal my main (although lately I’ve been playing Zer0 a lot because I didn’t play him much the first time around) and I think the thing that initially appealed to me the most was his ability to go into “god mode”. Once you get used to laying 10 tons of hurt on mobs while being nigh unkillable, it’s hard to play any other way … For me at least.
80s action film references.
The dual gun wielding John Woo style of action. I tend to go to extremes- while I love ADS sniping in games I also love putting a Super Shotgun in some bad guys face ala Doom 2- it’s the reason Sal and Zero were the first characters I tried in this game. I also like his personality- his voice actor did a great job in bringing that out. And IIRC he also has the highest bounty on his head of any Vault Hunter- he’s a very wanted man…
Because I have issues.
Because they tried to kill The Abuela, obviously.
For me it’s the potential
2 guns = combos
The theorycrafter in me just wanted to make things happen.
You’re right that he is gear-dependent
And as for being easy mode, the internet made him so:
some characters are execution-based: You can’t take a great Zero build and expect to kick ass right away, you have to learn to play Zero right: he’s all about player skill.
Sal is prep-based: Make a good build, pick the right gear, weight your choices, do the maths and then go to town with him. If you kill everything in your path, you did your homework right. If you die constantly, then your build is flawed, go back to the drawing board.
In short: If your build is good, you don’t need to be 
The problem (well…problem… ) arise with boards like these, because prep can be SHARED.
If you take someone else’s build from the internet, you will have great success and will think “Sal is easy mode!” and he is…because someone else did the hard part for you
My normal playstyle is very strategic and methodical. I like to control a fight and pick enemies off from mid- or long range. This is why my favorites are Axton and Maya, of course. Sal’s appeal to me is change of pace. When I play as Sal, I’m unashamed to say that I go full Grog-Harold-tard and faceroll everything. It’s high speed, low thinking, gratuitous, maniacal fun.
So, I have all 3 of the above named classes solo through OP8.
A perk which I later came to appreciate is that I can use Sal to observe how raids unfold, note phases, etc. I often do first-passes with him so that I can apply what I’ve learned to Maya and Axton. I actually kill Craw and Hyperius fastest with Maya, but learning those fights was helped considerably by being able to casually observe the phases of the fight with Sal.
Honestly, I only created Sal and continue to solo him through the OPs is for gear farming, and for someone to raid with when I want to/get frustrated with raiding with a different toon. There are quite a few items I like for other toons, but can’t legitimately defeat the bosses needed to grab them with said toons such as supplying maya and soon(ish), zer0, with blockades.
Zer0 (methodical, careful, planned moves - Jakobs snipers and coach guns), Maya (less methodical, more reactionary (ARs and SMgs/one woman army), and Krieg (organized chaos - melee) are for my different moods of playing
Sal is to supply the rest of them gear I couldn’t get with the others, and do so quickly.
Deputy Salvador build and just to have a character I can turn my brain off and just murder everything without a care in the world. I rarely played him before, and I only ever used him when I am with friends and need the extra firepower or are fighting raid bosses.
I like the smell of mowed lawn in the morning. Sal is a farming animal.