I think part of it would be intent. I don't know that much about its creation, but I'm guessing the Notre Dame was planned out to survive a long time, much long

I think part of it would be intent. I don't know that much about its creation, but I'm guessing the Notre Dame was planned out to survive a long time, much longer than a wooden structure of similar size. It was also built as a place of worship and of similar religious use. It wasn't something that wasn't going to be discarded if it wasn't "performing well". I say all of this in contrast to e.g. tearing down the Notre Dame and putting up some real estate development that rents out stalls to merchants. Say the economy takes a hit and the owners start considering selling the land, only for the structure to be torn down again. My point is that it'd be a tragic misuse if the structure fell into the hands of those solely seeking a profit from the structure/land.