This is because as time since last block increases, fees in mempool increase. So it becomes more profitable to mine the larger the mempool gets
By the time 60 or 90 minutes has gone by since the last block, the mempool would be so large with fees that 100% of hashpower should be online trying to get them
Conversely, after a block is mined the mempool should be empty and without a subsidy it may not be profitable to mine until mempool reaches a certain size.