"make them widely used" and "lead to them being widely used"

I have two alternatives in an academic paper. The first is

Additionally, the expressive logic foundations of ITPs lead to them
being widely used

The other is

Additionally, the expressive logic foundations of ITPs make them
widely used

Somebody advises me to choose "lead to them being widely used" instead of the other.
However, I can not figure out the difference.
Could you give me some help? Thanks in advance.