Should I be a Good Writer or a Popular Writer?

I've resorted to some plotting in the standstill of my first draft. I've heard you're really not suppose to plot to much while you're still barfing up the first draft. (I've always liked that comparison to a first draft...Barfing:P) anyway, in this plotting I'm realizing two things. One, my story is getting WAY to big. Seriously I wrote out all my plot threads and let's just say I have around twenty stories going on in this book. Second is I'm realizing I've got these massive plot holes...
       It's like I need to decide wether to have a magnifying glass on my POV character or if I want to pan out over all my characters. Honestly my POV character isn't feeling like a POV character and I'm thinking about switching to an Omniesant style of writing so I can make these extra plot threads cleaner and in a better braid.
      I think I've said this before, but I like thinking of my story as a braid. I've got all these plot threads that need to be woven together to make an amazing story. Right now my braid is looking like a frayed rope though. I'll be relieved when I'm done with this huge project. I've been thinking a lot about my first writing project and have kinda been wanting to get back into that one, which is good because come October it'll be six months sence I've finished it and I can offocially start editing.
      Editing is a whole other ball game that I haven't even stepped into yet. I'm wondering if having my first writing project being connected to the one I'm working on now is good or not. I feel like I've got a better understanding of how I want things to connect between the two books, but I'm wondering if I'm looking at this way to huge. Know what I mean? Like I don't want to make it where you HAVE to read the first to enjoy the second and the other way around. I want to finish the story for my first, then have a new story with the second that is still connected and interesting.
      Cassandra clare wrote an amazing series called the Mortal Instrument series. I loved it so much! But then she introduced her prequel, and I realized even though the setting has changed completely it's still basically the same story. Even the ending is pretty similar. I don't want to ruin the books because they are good reads, but looking at them from a writing perspective I'm finding some to Don'ts.
      It's like she has a cookie cutter plot for all her books. The lady who taught that free creative writing class told us about an author who always published books where someone's terminally ill, and they are in love and they find strength in their love and end up living. Seriously and the chick's published around ten books exactly like that.
      There comes a point where we need to decide to be good writers or popular writers. Popular writers seem to make the most money. Look at Twilight, I can a I don't think we should ever write for the sole purpose of getting an emotional response from our readers... In other words I don't want the dog to die in the end of all my books.