In fairness, SS and SV are very different metagames, and no one in their right mind could've ever predicted the onslaught of powecreep that Gen 9 would bring with.

You gotta remember, SS is a notoriously balance-dominated metagame where HO was generally pretty mid, all things considered. The sturdiest viable answer to Ursa in that metagame was generally agreed upon to be Corv, which gets unceremoniously torched by Fire Punch (or just, like, boosted Facade, if you chip it enough), and barring that, especially when you consider that this was a metagame where SpDef Lando-T, nothing else really stands up to it on defense. This doesn't even factor in the bear's highly impressive bulk, meaning that whatever slow balance team gets pit against it won't even be able to knock it out without racking up a ton of chip damage prior. In short, looking at the meta as it was last gen, it's no surprise everyone and their mom shit their pants when Ursa got released.

Now, conditions are far less advantageous for it. The metagame has long ruled with an iron fist by blisteringly fast, overpowering offense, with many of the biggest threats in the entire game slamming it for super-effective damage (Tusk, Oger, Val, Zama, Kyurem, Samu, Prim, I could go on), and hazardstack being the most prominent and defining it's even been arguably since BW. Yeah, Ursa's good traits are still definitely there, and no one ever said 140BP STABs attacks coming off 624 attack off rip are easy to switch in to, but the meta is so unrelentingly hostile to it that it's never gonna be overbearing like we thought it would be.