imo there are two ways for WRC

- "Big, loud and popular". If WRC is popular enough it doesn't matter much to manus what technology it uses relative to their roadcars. (writing this just as I read that Audi announced they go to F1).

Problem is that right now WRC is not popular enough and last time it was this big relative to other motorsports was in Group B times and partly in WRC 2000-2005. Various people have been trying to change this for long time, so by now I doubt it will succeed. 2017 WRC rules have been a "Group B revival" effort and while we had epic competition for 3 years in long term I dunno if I want to call them a success.

If I try not to be too negative maybe using "new media" might help. "Drive to survive" really boosted F1 popularity a lot for example. You might say that the rise of online-videos and onboards contributed a lot to WRC popularity in 2000-2005.

- "Similar to roadcars". This has also worked before. For manus like Subaru and Mitsubishi it really boosted their standings outside Japan in 1990s. In this case "similar to roadcars" these days means going EV.

I think most people would agree that current hybrid rules are an effort to be something in between and are at best a stopgap measure.