@ApproachMedium is entirely right about commute markets. Here's a map of the NY region showing the % of people commuting to the NYC CBD (in red)
...it's not a lot.
There's something to be said for the fact that CBD trips are the easiest to capture (dense employment lends itself to transit), but outside of the US, for example in Toronto, transit service providers have no trouble getting 20+% mode share in suburban office parks with frequent or reliably scheduled bus service closely integrated with rail. To say the least, that's not what we have here.
As for the design of an MOM service, I'd build out the w/b half of the Waterfront Connection and run a train, idk, every half hour from Lakewood to HOB all day. Have a bunch of feeder buses timed to meet the train, integrate fares, etc etc etc. One thing I don't think we should do (and this applies to all NJT services, not just MOM) is continue with the "50 different stopping patterns" school of service planning. It's confusing for riders, discourages intra-corridor ridership, and reduces overall flexibility. On the NJCL, there's also a capacity argument to be made. If you have trains skip more than a handful of stops, your capacity constraint quickly becomes keeping these disparate patterns out of each others' way rather than constraints in Penn.