Most people who work in non-mainstream languages are, to some extent, making a statement. They care more about X than mere "popularity". (Sometimes X is money, hence why I still have Anki flashcards in rotation on OCaml, Intersystems Cache and Powershell.)
If they do want "popularity" then the counter-counter-point is that it should be easier to get than ever. Just have one proficient person write a lot of idiomatic, relatively isolatable code, and then have an AI generate terabytes upon terabytes of public domain licensed variations and combinations on that code. If you make programming in the small a breeze, people will flock to your language, and then they can discover how to program in the large with it on their own time.
If they do want "popularity" then the counter-counter-point is that it should be easier to get than ever. Just have one proficient person write a lot of idiomatic, relatively isolatable code, and then have an AI generate terabytes upon terabytes of public domain licensed variations and combinations on that code. If you make programming in the small a breeze, people will flock to your language, and then they can discover how to program in the large with it on their own time.