Those are likely ancillary reasons why he never took off, but Bret and all of the aforementioned New Generation talents at the top struggled to draw during that period. All of which were varying degrees of a draw at some point (outside of Yoko, really) elsewhere.
There was just a lot less interest in wrestling during that period for all of the reasons I listed and you helped support...and its not because Bret Hart just wasn't a draw. He wasn't Hogan or Austin...but he wasnt a negative draw. His case is very similar to Sting in that...Sting was Ric Flair and when WCW moved to Sting after Flair went to the WWF in the early 90s, there was a decline in ratings and PPV buys, et al. but Sting was a far better draw than say Luger who they also tried to push in roughly the same period of time. Ultimate Warrior was just less of a draw than Hogan, but it doesn't mean there wasn't some drawing cache (WWE, Vince in particular has retconned the Warrior story dramatically since the two made nice years back before Warrior died). Maybe Bret is on the lower end of that spectrum, and thats fine, but business was absolutely not in the tank because of him. Business was in the tank because of Vince and the operation he was running.
There are far fewer people watching and attending pro wrestling overall than there was during the territory days. Pro Wrestling outfits were running shows on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and selling out all over the country. Sure, under Vince single event attendance rose dramatically during the 1980s, but as Vince and the WWF/E expanded and consolidated, there were less and less overall wrestling fans. Wrestling was more vibrant, diverse, and seen by more people. The story WWE tells is that it was just a rinky dink American circus before Vince made wrestling what it was...but they conveniently forget and gloss over the vibrant American scene as popular as it was in places like Oregon, Texas, the Carolinas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and places internationally like India and Singapore in the 50s and 60s that popped massive houses or the vibrant scene in Japan. In 1995, when the WWF is dying a death, New Japan and WCW put over 300K over two nights (under some very authoritarian means but I digress) at the Collision in Korea show headlined by Ric Flair, Antonio Inoki, SCOTT NORTON, and Shinya Hashimoto. All In London put 72K in seats less than 2 years ago. Again, when WWE was dying a death in the mid 90s Battle put 65K in the Ahtami Sun Dome headlined by Abdullah the Butcher...and hey, Bret Hart has one of the highest gates at Wembley during that same period, too. WCW was doing fine and on the ascent. Wrestling globally was doing well with some big time gates. WWF wasn't a draw in the mid-90s because of Vince. Not because of Bret Hart.
If you listen to Pat Patterson and regurgitate the same talking points you hear on WWE home videos when they tell the story of wrestling, yeah, it paints the picture of Vince as the greatest thing since slice bread. However, pro wrestling is far less watched, far less respected, and far less creatively satisfying because of Vince. The company post Vince is far better off in all ways. He was a bottleneck, no matter how successful the company was. Vince was a successful robber baron, but a weak titan of industry. Also, a multi-time rapist, conspirator to murder, negligent in the death of his contracted talent, lord knows what he has done with children, including his own daughter, but we definitely know he was supporting a pedophile ring, *** trafficker, harborer of rapists and *** abusers. Overall horrible human that in time will prove to be a net negative to the industry he was a part of.
The wrestlers make more money than ever before...but that was never because of Vince...that was because of the competition around the WWF/E driving up the cost of labor and Vince had to match to compete. When there was no competition, pay in the WWE was the best in town, but not really maximizing what they could have made. Look at the differences in pay NOW since AEW arrived on the scene versus before. As detailed in podcasts...1M max deal, now those max deals for top guys are 10M before the ancillary revenue streams like merch and gates.
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