Blaming Itanium for killing all of the bespoke RISC processors from the 90s is a stretch IMHO. Low cost high power x86 architecture chips were a much bigger factor. Nobody had the stomach to pay $70k (plus $20k/year for the mandatory support contract) for a "workstation" that was slower than a $4k PC, especially once Linux got good.

Intel's good luck and heavy investment in shrinking node sizes also made it impossible for niche companies to keep up. They were doomed to be slow power hogs in their attempt to keep up with commodity x86 processors.