What do you feel that the world of anime lacks in order to draw a better following to it?

You're looking at it all wrong. Anime is a Japanese culture device. They use parts of their own culture in their shows, similar to how American shows use American culture. Other cultures will not understand all the jokes, and may think it;s stupid. That's because there's a cultural division. Japanese culture is accepting of certain language, and no one's bothered by the sexual innuendos. It's just how they, as a culture, are

Also, anime is highly respected, whether you think so or not. Certain anime have also won several awards in story-telling and art. The ones you seem to be thinking of, however, seem to be the shonen anime. The ones that focus more on the action or the comedy. Go look up something like "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time," or maybe you should try "Black Butler." They're not great examples of amazing anime, but they are fairly well made and well written.

i think you are looking at the more comical or mainstream anime which has always been like this and is honestly completely fine. I wouldn't laugh all the time watching gintama or GTO without the ecchi, sexual innuendos, and graphical yet slapstick violence. The use of a god as a plot device isn't there in a large portion of them. They will take the piss out of kami sometimes but that is just Japanese humour and one of the enjoyable things about it.

If you want more adult series then go for ghost in the shell, legend of galactic heroes, cowboy bebop and such. all have violence, some reference to sex and god but that is life and far more interesting that the BS we find on TV nowadays.

They need to go back to pre-2006! After 2006 Naruto, One Piece, Full Metal Alchamest, Bleach made anime suck and blow hard. Anime is ALL about the teen market nothing for adults anymore. No sci-fi or mecha just bland teen crap. Where is the next Akira? The next Ghost in the Shell? The next Evangelion? The next Cowboy Bebop?

I'm not an anime fan persay, but I have seen a couple episodes before.
I think, if they cut back on making the anime like pornos and focused more on a detailed plot or story line, making the characters more realistic in their characteristics and qualities, that may help other people discover them.