I see it as simply the combination of: "the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don't", and "there are fates worse than death".
To be plain: the worst the bear can do is kill you and eat you (hopefully in that order). That's what we all know. We 100% know that and I don't think anyone is going to argue that point.
But a complete fucking stranger? They could be Hannibal for all you know. Keeping you alive by cutting off your appendages and feeding them to you.
The main culprit of this is toxic men who will send unsolicited dick pictures to unsuspecting women as an opening line, then put them on blast for not responding positively to being assaulted by penis pictures they didn't ask for.
The kind of guy that wouldn't see anything wrong with saying "you should smile more, you're so pretty when you smile".
The fact is, being a woman on the internet, you can, quite easily, get bombarded by complete strangers with all kinds of fucked up shit that sexualizes you and reduces you to an object only worthy of living if you can pleasure a man.
With the mountain of fucked up shit random dudes do to women online, I do not understand why anyone would ever be surprised that they would pick a wild fucking animal over the likely outcome of being stuck in the woods with any of the kinds of creepy fucking guys that troll around the internet, showing their dick to everyone with tits.
I'm a guy, I'm not surprised by any of this, and I don't blame anyone for saying "bear", it's honestly, a safer bet.