I Googled around a bit and it seems like around 1900, a bunch of influential surgeons recommended that nobody should even consider stapes mobilization again, partly because the risk of infection, which could be fatal, was so great. So people collectively forgot about it until Rosen re-discovered it after antibiotics and safer surgery was available. But Rosen's technique seems to be different - moving the base of the stapes, rather than the small end connected to the incus bone.
