And Gore folded like a card table with his high road Democrat bullshit.

Gore was told by the party they didn't have his back, so it was down to him and his campaign that had just spent all it's money.

There 100% should have been a fight for it, although from what I recall it wasn't 100% Gore did actually win it. There was 100% shady shit, but at least what was found out was legal shady shit.

But Gore wasnt what the DNC wanted in a candidate anyways, and they were unwilling to spend the political capital on the fight. I think the literal capital too, they may have refused to pay for the recount?

This has been looked into though:

The results: The two major conclusions here are that Gore likely would have won a hand recount of the statewide overvotes and undervotes – which he never requested – while Bush likely would have won the hand recount of undervotes ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, although by a smaller margin than the certified 537 vote difference.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/politics/bush-gore-2000-election-results-studies/index.html

So Gore could have won, but he didn't challenge the right thing and still would have lost the recount that wasn't completed

But if the DNC had backed him like the RNC backs their candidate (regardless of who it is) they could have challenged both and Gore would have been the candidate.