It's still entirely possible to deliver content as text and hyperlinks on the existing web, and most people aren't so averse to and disgusted with the existing web that they would prefer an entire other platform and protocol.
Read any thread about the Gemini protocol and you'll discover even most people on HN (who should be exactly the kind of people to find it appealing) find it too basic and restrictive.
The Gemini protocol doesn't really offer what the old web was all about because it doesn't allow the author the degree of freedom and creativity that the old web did. It was designed under the premise that the "web" should only be a strictly textual data format with only links to other documents and that styling and layout should be extremely minimal and entirely controlled by the client. Which is not what the old web was, either technically or in spirit. It's what some people believe the old web should have been.
As such it can only appeal to a subset of even technical people, and it's probably reached its saturation point by now.
