This is because the handful of nerds with deep pockets tend to only support a small subset of dev teams, and don’t do much to spread awareness for the protocol itself.

Are you referring to X and "platforms" like that? Can only speak for what we have seen. Over past two years we posted over a hundred video ads about the "Nostr Protocol" right here on Nostr and saw all of them appear on various major platforms. These were high quality. So nostr plebs did share these, I know there were many others on here who did the same who are far more creative than us. Corndalarian and Mickey come to mind and Derek Ross etc. I have seen their Nostr protocol stuff on the platforms. We need more of this. Alot of peeps on here a couple years ago would complain people who posted Nostr ads on here were preaching to the choir by posting Nostr protocol stuff but their intention I think was that others on Nostr would share it elsewhere.