This is obviously a very wide field where we can't make any generalisations, but I still that your point sounds a bit like "but how do we serve the mainstream" (and I think: we shouldn't) whereas my point is more like "how do we just be creative and artistic" (but I agree that not all works must meet that criteria, there is a gray zone in between).

I'm pretty sure Franz Kafka or Kurt Vonnegut didn't give a flying fuck about some potential audience, but people will be talking about their work for centuries.

Tolkien probably also didn't think (or even plan) that his work would become pop culture.

The Bible? Absolutely horrible and impenetrable in every possible way - but somehow it found an audience.

I guess, if a work defies all norms and surprises us, an audience that nobody could have predicted will somehow materialize.