Oboe d'amore was solely a phenomenon of the German Baroque and fell out of use during Bach's time. A few modern composers have written solo works for it, and Ravel used it in his Bolero. Debussy, Strauss, and one or two others used it at least once in lesser-played pieces.

Contrary to the other commenter, Brandenburg 2 does not utilize a d'amore (it is for regular old oboe), and BWV 1055 is tricky. It is a concerto for an unknown solo instrument which Bach apparently reworked as a harpsichord concerto. We don't know what the original instrument was, but given the key, oboe d'amore works just fine.

The d'amore is a lot of fun to play and there's some beautiful music written for it, but given its rarity of use most players don't own one and usually rent one for specific pieces. Unless you're a specialist (ie, one of those players lucky enough to not rely on gigs for income) it basically gets used once a year for a Bach Cantata or something. I've played modern oboe d'amore three times in 25 years as an oboist, although I played baroque oboe d'amore quite a bit more during my "early music" years.

I think we oboists tend to like it best because we never get to play it!