I'm not really sure I see what you're driving at. I mean yes, GNU's never been thaaat relevant to most people. That doesn't change that in the context of the OPs original point it's hard to see GNU as having done anything but lost ground in contemporary times. Which in turn makes it hard to see a way it'd be a path towards whatever salvation was being opined on. If the primary vehicle for GNU's propagation before was situations that saw it bundled with Linux we're now in a time where there's countless mainstream Linux devices and virtually none of them incorporate GNU.