BLE isn't the real competitor to ANT IMO, but instead 802.15.4 standardization, which is the protocol that underpins Zigbee, Thread, and Matter. Today, microcontrollers with 802.15.4 radios are widely available.
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That being said: Nordic Semiconductor... probably one of the best radio+microcontroller manufacturers... is making the nRF5340. An extremely modern, ultralow power ARM Cortex-M33 with direct ANT support. (5.3 mA specified when transmitting.... yeah... really low power for a radio chip).
I don't think ANT is dead. You can still use it if you like. But with so much momentum going towards the 802.15.4 stack, its hard for me to pick something else for PAN purposes today. That nRF5340 basically supports every PAN: ANT, 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread, Matter), BLE.
I guess this article does a great job for ANT vs BLE. But the real battle in my brain is 802.15.4 vs ANT.
BLE really isn't a competitor, because its designed for far more complex use cases. Its very low energy after all those connections are figured out, but there's just a lot more effort for users involved compared to ANT or 802.15.4. If you need to connect with a cellphone, there's no competitor. If you just need to bleep out packets to whoever is willing to listen, yeah, ANT, Zigbee, etc. etc. are better for that.
I just bought an Apple Watch to replace my o.g. Garmin Swim watch, for which I'd lost the ANT+ dongle (and didn't even bother to look at the state of software). Which is a shame, because the Garmin is a nicer device for swimming, as it's much more focused in its design.
