Laserdisc was first by a long shot and would have been adopted but the cost was through the roof, I remember it clearly. And that was a quick google for more on spot examples feel free I'm know your able to google. I'm not interested in getting into a protracted discussion on semantics.
I'm not disagreeing with your semantics. You said "better tech loses all the time" and cited some poorly marketed products as examples. Sure I can google, but I still can't find any good fodder to back up
your statement.
I brought up Laserdisc because I don't think it's an example of better tech 'losing' to inferior tech. Optical disk technology has been winning for decades.
Edit: I'm honestly not trying to split hairs about this, but the "better tech loses" idea is repeated quite a bit here and is almost always accompanied with examples of products like Sega Saturn or Intellivision, or of technologies that ultimately
were adopted, just not in their earliest form.