Linguistics is the only field I can think of where the general public does not take seriously the knowledge of the experts (linguists).
Though I'd still argue linguistics has it worse. You don't really expect people in educated society to get into heated arguments with the 10-day weather forecast, or jump in to correct your "biology mistakes" while you're eating...
Metalinguistics isn't really the place for people to jump onto and use as the base to improve their language understanding. A lot of it is exceedingly jargon and thus completely inaccessible.