As far as I understand one of the core purposes of CFAR is to research how you can teach people to be more rational. If you want to raise the sanity line of the general population you do need that research.

SPARC is as far as I understand it about getting young kids to be rational.

I personally made the experience with Quantified Self movement building that while we did have a mainstream media presence most of the interesting people who came to our meetups didn't come over that channel.

I think that the level of immersion that SPARC provides is ideal for having a lasting impact.