There's little you can do with it. Other templates that are more commonly used should be on the list. I dunno, we can do one up as a community and maybe "force" the imgflip hands on the matter. Do an event or a meme or something. If I do it nobody will see it LOL! Yer shit is more popular...
But if you use all those templates which you don't like (i.e. to impress your hate/displeasure in this post) ... don't you contribute to the file of exact those memes within the popular tab?
If I understood correctly: in the background is something like a "counter". Every time a meme from the popular tab is used it gets a point on this counter. If a non popular meme earns over a certain period more points than a popular one it is transferred to the tab. Right?
My personal philosophy: I don't use memes which I don't like (i.e. "board room meeting")
What you say makes perfect sense but I have no idea (and likely nobody else here either) how imgflip actually works. They keep so far in the dark about their inner workings the government wants to hire them for Area 51 security.
And yeah, boardroom meeting is another one I dislike :P