I always listened to the song. The song itself started immediately as the credits rolled by, so for me, it was hard to miss. If it had started a few minutes into the credits instead, then yes I could see children missing out on it. But the song starts, like, 2 seconds as the credits start and I didn't use the remote much as a kid, so little chance of me missing it. I used to rewind and replay the credits just to listen to that song.
I was probably unusual as a kid as I did enjoy watching the credits. Though admittingly, I mainly watched them to see the voice actors list. Sometimes I didn't know the name of a character, so I look there, or I just wanted to know who voiced them.