Good examples. Seems it's likely just a stable shape. One of only 3 regular polygons that can form a "tiling" (along with equilateral triangles and squares).
Discussion
Spot on. And equilateral triangles tessellate to… hexagons. Why? Because they’re the bestagons!
Cool, thanks for sharing. I recently learned that the hexagonal honeycomb is made by stacking circles of wax, then heating them a bit by flapping wings in front of them fast, and they then melt into shape as they push against each other.