And disk brakes flowed from MTB into UCI. I think you've lost the plot here--you're basically saying that UCI is holding up progress because tech it doesn't approve for racing doesn't get developed, but then when faced with tech that didn't come from racing, your response is that it's the lack of a racing authority that allowed it to develop. So basically, you're arguing that UCI approval is necessary to promote a technology for road biking, and your proof for that is that technology that later gets adopted in road biking gets developed in an area that has no UCI.

Bents aren't meeting consumer resistance because they aren't raced, it's because they are awkward machines, difficult to operate on the street and really way more complicated than diamond frame bikes. I seriously doubt that some of the crazy aero positions that UCI has banned would be anything that amateur riders are going to find practical on the roads.

Frankly, if you were right that the UCI was really in the pocket of manufacturers and racing is the only way to promote road bike sales, why wouldn't they allow all technologies? The bike companies would love to be able to market even more levels of doo dads and jimcrackery.