Why did Shakespeare make King Lear have three daughters and not three sons?
Well, King Lear is not a fairy tale, first of all, and Shakespeare didn’t invent the story. There are many other sources for it, including Holinshed’s Chronicles (a history). Secondly, even if he had, it might have seemed nonsensical to his audience that a kingdom be divided among three sons when it should (according to the rules of primogeniture) simply all go the oldest son.
