I enjoy watching this sport. The participants of this sports is mainly weightlifters I mean the majority of the spectators. And it's a large niche and bitcoin is yet to be adopted in this sport. People placing bets using Bitcoin on such an interesting game will help publicize the currency. I can recall Mark Henry that won the strongest man in the world years back. He pushed a truck by dragging a rope tied on his body to the vehicle. It's been long since I watched this sport and it seems like people who are not into weightlifting easily forget about this sport.
I think it could be due to the stigma that, quite frankly, the WSM competition brought, and that is one of a freakshow spectacle. And it's really much more than that. It's the pinnacle of human capability regarding strength and should be treated the same as powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and so on. Nowadays athletes are way more accessible and their personalities are directed more to the casual viewer of the sport than to the die har fan.
It's incredible especially in squat. For instance Licis weighs 160 kg and manages to squat more than 2.5 times his own weight! This is playing with fire because when you put 1x your weight on your shoulders you're already straining your joints. 2x your weight is usually like 50/50 chance of injury as you never know what joint or tendon is going to give up. It's beyond your own control and I've seen people's muscles rip and fail while lifting.
I guess this sport is not as popular as for instance MMA because most federations modify the disciplines a bit. In one you may end up carrying rough stones, in the other polished stone balls. In one event you press a wooden log and in another it's a barbell. It's not as standardized as a typical olympic sport and it's not as strict towards doping.
Yes, those issues you mentioned are a big factor, but as the general public view towards doping in sports is shifting, so is the view of sports that were notorious for doping. And yes, the discrepency in disciplines causes a bit of confusion to the more seasoned viewers, let alone new spectators.