Ok, I can see this is going nowhere fast so I'll make this my final point-counterpoint post and then politely bow out of this debate.
By the time these memes are considered memes, they've already experienced widespread popularity among 4chan or other sites, which justifies their categorization as memes. They can't be designed to spread if they already have. As much as you hate Encyclopedia Dramatica, it works as a good gauge to see what can be considered a meme and what's just a bunch of failed in-jokes that never caught on.
For your second doubt, that does seem more like pessimism speaking rather than logic. If nothing else, why don't you try to create your own unique template image, post it on 4chan and see if it actually catches on? You'll realize it isn't as simple as you make it out to be.