I don't believe we want to make World Cross Country like the Kentucky Derby.
That event attracts attention and spectators primarily because it is a social scene for wealthy elite white folks who like to drink and party. Few are actually interested in the actual race, unless they bet on the race. Gambling is also a big draw for that event
The Derby is an attendance event and only a tiny percentage of the crowd will ever get close to a horse.
There are problems with trying to make World Cross Country like a major marathon.
Big marathons are successful events primarily because of the huge number of participating runners. All those participants pay entry fees (which support the event) and the participants and their family/friends who travel to the event support the local economy. Running a marathon is a significant event for many people unlike a 5 or 10k. That significance attracts family/friends of those runners to attend the event,
Most of the participants and spectators do not care about the elite races. Few people travel to a major marathon to watch the elite races. The elite races survive at the level they do primarily because of the indirect financial support associated with the masses participating in the event.
World Athletics puts on the World Cross County Championships for the elite level racing. They do not care about and do not support mass participation events associated with their championship events. Mass participation events associated with elite level races (like those at World XC or the Paris Olympics) were totally separate from what World Athletics was doing.
A big part of World Championship events are the awards ceremonies for the elite athletes, and any other participation event associated with the Championship must not interfere or conflict with those award presentations.
The practical logistics of conducting a huge mass participation cross country event in association with World Cross County are much more challenging than having a mass participation marathon in association with a major Marathon. The venues for large cross country races normally do not have the infrastructure in place to transport and accommodate large numbers of spectators and participants.
It was great that a good number of people participated in the citizen runs at World XC in Tallahassee. But the relatively narrow course could not have accommodated large numbers of participants. Sure they could have run multiple races for 5000 citizen racers. That would have taken most of a day, and the natural surface course may not have been able to withstand the pounding of that many people running multiple laps (unlike the hardened paved roads large marathons are run on).
Major marathons attract big money sponsors who are trying to advertise and promote their companies to the huge number of participants in those races and the many family/friends of participants.
Really big sponsors want to rebrand the event as their own and become a title sponsor of the event.
For example, they are not the London Marathon, New York City Marathon, Boston Marathon and Chicago Marathon. They are the TCS* London Marathon, TCS New York City Marathon, Bank of America Boston Marathon and Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
I don't believe World Athletics will permit rebranding of its World Championship events and there are limits on the sponsors local organizing group can accept to avoid conflicts with official World Athletic sponsors.
Unless limits on sponsorship change, the amount of sponsor money flowing into World Athletics events will be limited.
*If you do not at least know that TCS is Tata Consultancy Services you are not a real fan of distance running. TCS sponsors five of the seven World Marathon Majors. TCS states the marathons they sponsor generate $2.25 billion for local economies.