Disclaimer: long ramble ahead.
EDIT: Disclaimer: This is only my theory on why cars are FWD these days, not proven facts.
If you got a whole bunch of engineers together, and told them to design a sports car, I very seriously doubt it would be FWD.
Its more to do with making a sporty version of an existing 'base model' car.
There is only one reason why companies make FWD sports cars, eg. Levins, type R, etc.
Its because it helps them sell the base models. EG. John smith sees a nice BZG or type R, and thinks Oooh! thats a nice car. But I cant afford it. So he goes and buys the lower specd version for considerably cheaper.
I suppose also because they can use the same chassis/platform for the economy car and the sporty one, which saves cost. If they had to make a new RWD configured chassis just for the performance model, it wouldnt be economical. Making the budget models RWD too wouldnt be economical either I suppose.
I suppose Nissan did this with the skylines and silvias though. Which is awesome! But if it drives up the prices of even the base models, some customers would go elsewhere. Especially since some people dont even know which are the drive wheels anyway.
I mean look at what 'type R' did for Honda. Now every honda fan boy wants to spice up their 80s civic with type R components, which they wouldnt be able to do if type Rs were made RWD. Noone would be able to fit a VTAK system into their civics, if all of the decent engines were used in RWD applications.

So it helps brand popularity I suppose?
A lot of people are quite brand loyal when it comes to cars. So if they can get people into hondas at an early age, they might have a customers in the making later on.
Also it means that after market parts made for the sporty versions can probably be fitted to the el cheapo model too. So it keeps everyone happy! Except those of us who like to drive looking out the side windows, instead of the windsheild.
But I still think it sucks.

AE111 RWD would be fun.
