When you start to go beyond that your audience tends to be those who understand the more intricate side of music, i.e. other musos. So obviously the audience is going to diminish, (pun intended!), in size. Couple that with the number of steel players in the UK and it could become an exercise in naval gazing
I played bass in one of my sons band for a few years, we played all original songs, we had decent audiences but one time we were playing a multi band gig and the headline act was a cover band, the audience response for them was way beyond any other band playing original material because the audience were already familiar with the songs and could relate to them immediately.
Personally I like to experiment and try different things but have no illusions that what I do will become popular but that doesn't bother me.
So I would attend an event an event where experimental music is played, but would expect most of a smaller audience would consist of musos rather than punters, but it's good to stretch things in different directions regardless of the audience size.
BTW Shouldn't it be neeps
