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I don't want to be cynical, but I think that you are assuming that human beings are much more rational than they actually are.

If you want my honest opinion, political philosophy is mainly a systemization of political ideas and interests well represented in a particular culture. Rawls is a systemization of ideas and interests that broadly support the welfare state. Robert Nozick is a systemization of another set of ideas and interests. And so forth. We can criticize the ideas of Rawls or Nozick or any of the others, but it doesn't much matter. Everyone simply picks the one that fits with their own prejudices.

Just consider the possibility that the whole idea that people can sit around a rationally construct and criticize fundamental political ideas is naïve.