The answer is, sadly, people don't care.  A majority of BTC values comes from its use as a status symbol.

Gridcoin is a wonderful project, and I agree with all of your points, but at the end of the day, it's the nerd of the AltCoin world.

If you really want to help, why not get local businesses involved?  Plenty of non-profits would likely be glad to add their spare processing cycles on their various machines, the odds are they just don't know it's possible.

GRC will never be popular, but it quietly helps change the world.  BTC will always be popular, and accomplishes nothing beyond existing for the sake of existance.

Wherever you are, I assume there's a local org that would be thrilled to help.  Call them up, get a meeting and educate them.