More like people didn't "get" them. I like them as an idea of the several ancient civilizations' idea of sacred animals, and the idea of them basically being the non-human based aasimar. I've wanted to play (in the TTRPG) a Tabaxi variant aasimar, and Ardlings are the closest thing to that, since my DM wasn't having homebrew in that game. Here, they'd have at least what's currently in the UA to work with.