As a writer, I think you also need to decide: are you writing to be read, or to help people? They're not the same thing. If you're writing to be read, you'll go for low-hanging fruit, say things most people would agree with, and show a passion that matches whatever the popular passion already is. If you're writing to help people, you may have various messages that are unpopular or don't appeal to the average coder.

Unstated here, but also important, is that fame brings fame. There are a lot of folks writing schlock but are quite popular because they're the people that everybody thinks are supposed to be popular.