The real reason it hadn’t caught on is probably because It is viable. Big oil for years has aggressively attacked anything that could realistically replace them. They killed the electric car back in the 70’s, they demonized nuclear energy even as much safer and entirely green options were designed because both those things threatened their existence. Now I think Tesla’s success is in part due to Musk who is a real salesman and futurist. He designed electric vehicles from the ground up and the timing was better than in the 70’s. But yes, realistic solutions to the pollution “problem” are often the ones that are crushed while semi useless ones like wind turbines are supported.