No, I don't think SoRiku ever stood a chance in reality. Neither Disney nor Square have a history of depicting LGBT characters. For LGBT players, you get used to viewing games in sort of an AU way to find something to enjoy. I'm not even sure what Nomura's intent is, it's very possible it's just queerbaiting for him. Several of his games have this same vibe of pushing an alternate ship to the main one--Cloud/Sephiroth to Cloud/Aerith, Squall/Seifer to Squall/Rinoa. Riku/Sora feels like it may have started the same way, considering KH1 was thought to be a one-off at the time and Riku was a villain like Sephiroth and Seifer in that one.
That may be why Yuna/Tidus are the only canon / heterosexual (those worlds feel synonmyous, forgive me) ship he's depicted that I like, perhaps because he put central focus on them rather than trying to please two crowds at the same time. That's possible, but, personally, I think it's because Yuna is a much stronger character than Aerith, Rinoa, and Kairi.... I would've preferred Cloud/Tifa to Cloud/Aerith for that same reason.