If I put on an amazing show even as a tiny or insignificant company I should still gain popularity. In real life, word would spread how great the show was and more people would tune in to the next show.
There should maybe be a system where if the show rating is 20+ higher than your popularity in that area, then you still gain popularity regardless of the popularity blocks, or at least gain more viewers to allow you to gain popularity.
This change was brought in to reflect reality, but in reality, if something is amazing then people will talk and more people would watch the next show and you would gain popularity. The new system leaves smaller companies stuck and unable to progress. How are we supposed to gain popularity if a 30 pop company can't get more than 5000 viewers. Maybe I'm missing something here but this is how it appears to me.
I get that you can turn this feature off, but the feature is supposed to reflect reality and I don't believe it does.