my answer is, does any one outside of the hobby know about it??? NOPE.
no one is bringing pinball back into the mainstream any more, big failure of pinball makers

I would say yes.
Several people at my work (I work for a BIG company) have asked me about the ACDC pinball.
Some of my daughters, friends, parents have also asked me about it and I hardly know them.
I haven't discussed the machine with any of these people before they raised it with me themselves.
I don't think you can get more mainstream than having almost complete strangers ask about it.
Sounds to me like it has definitely put Stern, and pinball, back into people's minds and popular culture.