Why is that? What’s dumber than UDP (from the network perspective)? From the network perspective it’s a lot dumber than TCP.
Actually I'm kinda relieved QUIC succeeded at all with much less layering on top existing stuff than usual. (Compared to say Websockets-over-HTTPS-over-TLS-over-TCP-over-someIPv6-over-IPV4-tunnel...). If it's feasible to deploy a major new protocol over just UDP, that's practically as good as directly over IP!
P.S. I think encryption is the main force that held back the (economically almost inevitable) desire of middleboxes to "add value" by manipulating inner layers.