The first one is probably accurate, the second point I wouldn't count as I feel from experience talking to people, that describing it like that is just as much of a deterrent as an appealing factor.
I'll partially agree with Neo on this. The first game came out between Chrono Trigger and FFVII. It only did well because it was one of maybe four RPG title available outside of Japan on the Playstation and it quickly disappeared from the limelight after Square splashed onto the scene in 97. Which may have been a saving grace because beyond the game's novelty and B-Movie plot and cast, it's pretty blah as a game. Persona 2 Innocent Sin was never released outside of Japan, most likely because of the elements dealing with Nazi's and some of the violence against minors. Despite its often silly plot, the game does have some really dark scenes that many Westerners would find objectionable. Eternal Punishment was released in 2000, around the time Playstation RPG fans were either playing Chrono Cross or FFIX. The PS2 was also getting released so the game fell through in the shuffle and became a cult hit for the few people who picked it up and liked it.
Persona 3 is an example of the Earthbound/Xenogears/Suikoden II phenomena, where its initial release in 2007 was met with great reviews and modest sales but the game was largely overlooked thanks to most people being more concerned about the first year games coming for the Wii and PS3 which had been released holiday season the previous year. Not to mention Bioshock was released like a week after P3 was. From what I gather, P3 didn't really get much traction until FES was released because the word of mouth of other RPG players created more interest, so when FES was released, it met with a bit more success. So it was a sleeper hit much like Xenogears and Suikoden which were both more popular years after their initial releases. P4 also had issues because it really was one of the last notable titles released on the PS2 before people stopped caring.
So the series has always kind of struggled but ite been getting more and more popular and as of now, I beleive Atlus has stated its their best franchise, which is probably why they are taking their sweet time with Persona 5. The amusing thing is that Persona fanbase is in a similar situation as FF fans where fans of the first two installments are pretty annoyed with the entries that made the series a household name. Its not uncommon to go into a Persona forum and not have at least one person remark that the series was better before P3 came along and made the series into an otaku dating-sim series.
It is okay, I really wasn't expecting you to respond.