Like most things, I think it was more of a confluence of several things.

I can see how slavery kept inertia to develop low.

I can also see how the environmental (and political) turmoil that eventually brought ancient Greek civilization down would have been a huge factor.

Likewise, I can see the Romans, who kind of subsumed the remnants of ancient Greece but also kind of looked down on Greek culture and were more concerned with conquest would have turned away from and distegarded such technologies. It was, as you say, at best a toy. Without someone to see the potential in it for the prevailing political mandate of the time, it wouldn't have been further developed.