What I have observed, in studying the subject, is bears who are seeing a person as prey, are not as concerned with bear spray. They retreat, but then they come back, sometimes multiple times. If a bear keeps coming back, it is likely interested in you as prey. One of the great advantages of firearms is the bear is usually killed. Then it cannot come back, and is removed from the gene pool.
As bears who have a tendency to view people as prey are removed from the gene pool, bears who avoid people tend to dominate the gene pool. All species of bears in North America have shown this effect. Even polar bears were commonly avoiding human hunters by 1914.
There is/has been a trend in the last few decades to "protect" predators. It used to be that people would routinely kill wolves or cougars or bears because you couldn't be sure if one day that animal would attack you, your pets, your children or your livestock. That changed to "we need to protect those animals". Like you said, predators had a cultivated fear of humans. But that is now gone for the most part.
I’ve heard the Groom Creek attack may have some kind of previous interaction between the 365 lb healthy bear and the older man enjoying his morning coffee but have yet to find ‘Official’ data.