I think you may be onto a large elephant in the room in that regard. Granted, there have always been happy/sappy Gospel tunes, but many were a flash in the pan, or only used as part of a larger whole, where I think such can work pretty well.

With the intense use of focus groups, ie the Becky model of Christian audiences, relevance drops, especially so, if “keep things positive” becomes exclusive. The other issue is Becky gets older and wiser, and what once fit, may no longer be sustainable. Which ties in well, in that the other forums of music may almost always gain an audience, as they hit right at the heart and are pretty authentic as well.

There are only a few “Christian” bands that I like. Some of that is preference, some of it is baggage I have but I think one of the problems of the industry as a whole is that they do not carry a sense of relevance anymore. If you’re priority is simply “to keep things positive” then eventually your audience will leak out. Rock n’ Roll, Punk, even country attempts to deal with the pain, heartbreak, anger, hurt, and then some. That’s not to say they’re always right in their understanding but it seems that music will always gain an audience.