I've given other versions of this pessimistic rant in many other topics on this forum, but here I go again:
I've been in that boat before, the boat you want to be on. Giving the people what they want (even if it's not really what you want) and actually getting attention for it. It felt nice in the beginning, but the fact remained that it was never supposed to be "all" of me. It was just a game, a little side project. So eventually I returned to my passion projects, the things I really wanted to do, and of course, all the literal hundreds of people who supposedly signed up to see my art suddenly disappeared. Again and again. It was pretty demoralizing.
What was even more demoralizing was thinking I could always get them back, if I just did x and y. ^^; What a fool I was. Sometimes x and y worked...and sometimes they didn't. It's like gambling: sometimes you win big, most of the time you win nothing, and every once in a while you win just enough to get you to think "I'm getting there...just one more try and I'll win big again". You might...and you might not.
I don't think I'll win big again, at least not now. Everything I thought I had has fallen through; x and y are about as predictable as my own work at this point. Once upon a time, I thought I had "achieved" at least a steady 10 comments per work. Now I'm back to glowing if I get even one good comment. So much for "achievement"...
To be honest, I think it was never me. After some careful observation, I think I was riding the waves of someone else's popularity the whole time, and now that they've ebbed, I ebb as well. When they come back, I'll probably experience a resurgence in popularity...but I'm not looking forward to it. Because that'll mean that I'm right. That nothing I did was the reason I was popular. It was always someone else, and something else...
The moral of the story is, don't sell yourself out. Because if you have even an ounce of integrity, even a hint of the belief that your passion should correlate with your recognition, then you won't like what you end up with. You'll just have another set of problems on your hands...
Be yourself. Be unique. At least then if you can't become popular, you can still have a little fun. And if you really want to be famous, keep striving for it-- you'll never get it if you don't keep trying. But don't depend on what other people want to give that to you. Keep doing what you want to do, no matter what it is, and keep hoping.
Because honestly, you aren't the problem. You've probably convinced yourself of that, because you are the only thing you can control, but it's just a comfortable lie. No matter what you do, no matter how base and vile or idiotic and empty or bright and beautiful or deep and memorable, someone out there wants it; someone else out there would like to see it, make no mistake on that. You aren't the problem.
The reality is something that humans hate more than anything: the problem is out of your control. You can't do anything to get yourself the recognition you 'deserve'; the possibility that you will live and die in obscurity is real and it may never go away.
All you can do is wait. Keep waiting for the people who are waiting for you, the real you. And while you wait, try to have some fun.