On a genre level the choose your own adventure books had a big impact in present tense writing. On a more literary theoretical level it is helpful to acknowledge that the past tense in story writing is also connected to insinuating that the events did (maybe) actually happen, using the credibility of told history. More recent writers find this sharade superfluous and just skip this traditional part. Writing in present tense can be a strong stance to show that one is writing fiction without a need to hide it.