Well, the banjo playing community in my opinion exists today outside the control of the music industry establishment. Even in Country Music, the one big commercial music industry that uses the banjo to any degree, it is sort of a poor step-child instrument. Used to give a "traditional" sound to some records. The D-Chicks had to fight the record labels to keep one in their band, as I recall.

So it has mainly an amateur following, and amateur musicians tend not to be major innovators. But that has nothing to do with whether the music is good or will be accepted by an audience. Innovation can be vastly overrated. After all, how popular is Arnold Schoenberg's music? Innovative yes, appealing, no.