I do see your point and rationale. I disagree on only one point: to not consider the stations that managed to get on the air, holding them accountable for those that did not, seems unfair.
There is no denial many LPFM formats serve tiny audiences and overall lack the knowledge of most all broadcasters. In fact, my following of LPFM's track record, approximately a third of stations that get on the air wind up turning in their license.
It would be interesting to know the percentage of CPs in general that go unbuilt. I'm talking from LPFM through class A, AM stations, TV and LPTV. It would be interesting to know how many bid for stations at auction and never build. I do not know those percentages.
I know one commercial broadcaster facing many of the challenges LPFM stations faced. He already has had two CPs expire after trying to unload them for a fraction of the cash he had invested. Primarily it is a tower issue and the costs demanded versus the potential from the sparsely populated service area and existing radio services. In each case, promises were not kept by those entities that agreed to allow him on their tower. To build his own after buying land would add too much debt considering the billing potential. The reality is a tower might be available when you apply, but the tower owner gets new customers in the meantime, locking the applicant out on the given tower by the time they're granted and ready to build. In some rural areas that tower is the only option.
I'm merely guessing, but I think it would be fair to say the average LPFM takes in under $5,000 a year. One station I know never brought in a cent. After several years a full power FM moved, knocking the LPFM off the air. There was no frequency they could move to in the immediate area. One station does $480 a year doing Christian programming about 50% of the time. An eclectic FM in a community of 15,000 manages to attract about 250 listeners and about $200 a month, enough to break even. An oldies LPFM in a small town did $20,000 their first year and about $30,000 their second. Another community-involved classic hits station had approximately 22 Underwriters at $500 a month (one of the best stations I've heard in small market radio). Naturally the last two were run by radio people who understand radio. Most LPFMs lose a little money each year primarily because they do radio the way their board wants things versus the community at large.
In fact I had a discussion with a LPFM operator about his programming. He was perplexed because the community did not embrace him. His mission was to share views not found in mainstream radio to offer a platform for people to expand their knowledge on various subjects. I told him that because much of that was political in content, he was viewed as far left by the community, not his intent. He could not see that moving away from that, in time, would bring the core of the community to him if he embraced only subjects that the community at large was affected by. He didn't get that his desire to expand knowledge had backfired. Plainly put, he doesn't get that running Amy Goodman in a mostly conservative community goes unheard by the very people he hopes would listen. And he does not get that he is viewed as not a part of the community at large. If he centered on community non-political subjects, avoiding the controversial material (in his community's eyes) he stands a chance at being a station embraced by the community. He even admits selling underwriting is a challenge because of how he is perceived.