The big point that you're missing is the "duration and despair"... the grinding down despair of prices and the fear that "you just can't get a break and it's never coming back"...
That doesn't happen because inflation and growth works to push the market up more years than not.
Very rarely does the US stock market go down more than one year in a row.
Not saying it wont happen now, but by your definition bear markets have hardly ever happened in the US markets.