I think Lisp failed because it had no killer app. Most developers don't pick a language, they pick a project and the select the most appropriate language.
Web frontend -> Javascript
Unix / Linux -> C
Wordpress plugins -> PHP
Windows apps -> .Net
iOS -> Objective C / Swift
Android -> Java
In my entire career (25 years), I've never had a project that directed me towards learning Lisp. This pretty much leaves Lisp to the type of developer that seeks out new languages and is willing to spend the extra effort integrating, and that's a pretty small number of developers.
If Lisp was in the browser instead of Javascript, it would be popular no matter the complaints about the language.
Web frontend -> Javascript
Unix / Linux -> C
Wordpress plugins -> PHP
Windows apps -> .Net
iOS -> Objective C / Swift
Android -> Java
In my entire career (25 years), I've never had a project that directed me towards learning Lisp. This pretty much leaves Lisp to the type of developer that seeks out new languages and is willing to spend the extra effort integrating, and that's a pretty small number of developers.
If Lisp was in the browser instead of Javascript, it would be popular no matter the complaints about the language.