Even caring more about movies than the average person, I can't claim I ever enjoyed the Oscars much. Watching rich people congratulate each other is something I have extremely little tolerance for. Making a new category for popular movies isn't gonna do anything to change that. The idea itself, though... I don't know, popularity is something mostly determined by success and if that's what they're gonna go for, they might just give it to the highest grossing movie of the year. The thing about the Oscar is that it's given to movies for their alleged quality as decided by a jury of alleged experts. Giving popular movies their own category raises the question what determines if a movie is popular or not and by which standards to judge its qualities. Don't get me wrong, I want to see a Michael Bay movie win a Best Picture award as much as the next guy (Actually, no, I 'm pretty sure I want to see a Michael Bay movie win a Best Picture Award much more than the next guy) but to make a seperate category so that the Academy can acknowledge those superhero movies that kids love... well, seems like a marketing gimmick to me.
At that point, why not just swallow your pride and make a category for Best Action Movie? It would, effectively, amount to the same thing and come off as much less condescending than the implicit "We don't actually care for these movies but the peasants seem to enjoy them" that the term "Best Popular Movie" has.
Oh, and... good to have you back.