I think you can’t make a fair comparison of prospective new medal events (such as CX) to the sports that are established as Winter Olympic events (even if they are niche sports dominated by a few countries) because for a long time those sports WERE the Olympics. 2/3 of the medals at St. Moritz in 1928 were in speed skating and Nordic events, so there wouldn’t be an Olympics back then without them. Those events are iconic elements of the Winter Games.
On the other hand, I think CX is much more deserving of inclusion in the Winter Olympics than some of the recent additions, the choice of which seems based on the number of highlight videos they can produce.
Absolutely! I think if those at the UCI are serious about trying to get CX into the Winter Olympics, then they need to be more proactive. Show the IOC that it should be in the games. They had planned to make a start this season, but due to Covid-19, it didn't happen.
So, World Cups/ maybe eventually even a World Championships at snow/ski resorts; if there are going to be 10-14 World Cup races, then 2-3 snow/winter venues could be enough. And ski resorts tend to have artificial snow makers - if the organisers want to, they could guarantee snow....