I feel 0079 problem is being old. They should have really remade it and rely on AUs/OYW OVAs to hold over until it was done.
This is partially true.
However even G Gundam didn't do as well as Wing despite Wing, Sailor Moon and DBZ being huge which G is practically 3 combined.
SEED did well but the west wanted Wing and it showed when Toonami did that specia recasting like 10 years later and the ratings blew up.
Unless the West decides they want Sunrise's golden children they will never care about Gundam getting bigger here.
What should they have done differently? When Wing was popular or shortly after they brought all the merch, games, etc over and it didn't really sell like hotcakes.
I can't say what they should have done, but the fact is using the stuff they brought over at the time wasn't anything that they tried to produce for us in the west.
The model kits and merch we got here was clearly the Japanese market mindset, with the few figures they brought over not being as good.
The Games that had Wing seemed to do well enough as they continued to bring them over and push them on the cover like Battle Assualt 1/2.
People wanted more of those characters and Gundams in anime form, and if Sunrise didn't want to make it, then there is no right answer to do better as they couldn't with our creating more content.