I think this applies to “unpopular” authors no matter what fandom you’re in, too. There are incredible, gifted authors out there that never get their due because people pay too much attention to the kudos and hits instead of the writing style and story idea.
My fanfic take is that some of the best fics you’ll ever read will come from Rare Pair authors but they never get the attention they deserve because they’re not writing popular pairings so most people just ignore them.
But they really are missing out on some absolute bangers.