Why is the VV return so much stronger

the difference is of physical nature. VH is only the return of horizontal waves which were emmitted vertically. Its proportion and occurrence is smaller in most cases:

We have had some discussions on this:

What is often done for RGB composites is that you take the VH multiple times, e.g.
red = VV
green = 4 * VH
blue = (2*VH) / VV

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