It’s impressive to have the first major AI platform and then completely bungle it.

Eh, Watson was a classic open domain QA system originally, no deep learning or much of what we think of in an "AI platform" today. It was one of a bunch of such systems that were built in that early 2000s period. They all failed because the approach fundamentally didn't work very well.

Here's a write up of some relevant history if you're curious https://liweinlp.com/1465

Surely access to a Watson in Jeopardy would be a nice way to query "How old is Lady Gaga" or "What is the capital of Australia" at the time?