The lack of fame in the west is not a "problem" for the people behind idol shows. The idol genre works amazingly well in Japan, especially because basically all of them are multimedia franchises, even the tiny ones (so: Anime, manga, CDs, Radio drama...).

Sure Zombieland was a good example of how changing drastically the formula you can become famous. But "famous on Reddit = Money" isn't true at all.

You quoted Love Live, which was a huge hit exactly because it shifted the classic idol fromula without shifting the attractiveness. The fact it's still going after almost 10 years clearly shows that nothing has to be changed for it to be successful.