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Why did early interest in Gamow, Alpher, and Herman’s background-radiation prediction fade?

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Oval map of the cosmic microwave background radiation from NASA's WMAP mission, showing a mottled pattern of blue, green, yellow, and red representing temperature variations. — Cosmic microwave background A full-sky map produced by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) showing cosmic background radiation, a very uniform glow of microwaves emitted by the infant universe more than 13 billion years ago. Color differences indicate tiny fluctuations in the intensity of the radiation, a result of tiny variations in the density of matter in the early universe. According to inflation theory, these irregularities were the “seeds” that became the galaxies. WMAP's data support the big bang and inflation models, and cosmic microwave background is at the farthest limits of the observable universe.

Interest in the background-radiation prediction made by George Gamow, Ralph Alpher, and Robert Herman faded among astronomers primarily because it became apparent that the majority of elements heavier than helium are synthesized within stars, rather than during the hot big bang as they had originally proposed.1

Additionally, the theory failed to gain a following at the time because Alpher and Gamow were unable to interest radio astronomers in searching for the predicted 5-K background radiation, causing the prediction to be largely forgotten until the 1960s. While their work provided a foundational framework for cosmology, the scientific community's focus shifted away from their specific model of nucleosynthesis until later observations and independent predictions by other researchers brought the cosmic microwave background back to the forefront of scientific inquiry.231