The motivation I was given for algebraic topology is to assign some algebraic objects as invariants to topological spaces. This way we can show that two spaces are not homeomorphic if they are assigned a different invariant. However it seems to me like in algebraic topology the invariants are always up to homotopy equivalence or maybe even only weak homotopy equivalence. This seems strange to me. Is there a reason why other kinds of algebraic invariants that can distinguish homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic spaces not more widely studied? What is it about weak homotopy equivalence that is so special that seems to be the main focus of all algebraic topology?