Stop pushing your ideals onto an INDUSTRY.
And that's my biggest gripe with pop. It's more than an industry than any other genre. And don't think that I feel this way only with pop, I agree with you 100% with the bands you listed. However I see no reason whatsoever that an artist should ever write to sell, except maybe if they're writing a jingle for a commercial, but that's still something that I'm kind of on the fence about.
My mom listens to a Christian Rock station 24/7. Nearly EVERY SINGLE SONG IS THE SAME DAMN THING. Literally. The lyrics are predictable as hell (and don't say they're limited, you don't have to say "HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD" every damn song), the melodies are elementary and you end up getting multiple songs played right after each other that use the same exact chord progression, hell, even the instrument choices are the same. There's also the soft guitar running chords while the singer takes control and the sweeping orchestra kicks in, then when it backs off to get quiet, the bassist does this horrible LEAD line that completely destroys the balance of the song and butchers the melodic focus. Seriously. They ALL follow this same format.
What does this say about the genre as a whole? Well, maybe with Christian pop rock, the listeners like this kind of thing, so it would make sense to put it in there.
If my assumptions are correct, then we've just ran into one of my biggest pet peeves with music composition. When writing, you should write for one person. YOU. You should write it because you think it's good and that you've done the song justice. When you're writing using a formula, then you have no reason to judge it. If you've followed the formula, then it's "right".