There's no way to prove that in a quantifiable way, IMO, because there are many possible drivers for price appreciation. Now, it's generally accepted in the field of economics that additional demand in the face of unchanging supply leads to higher prices in unregulated capital markets, but its hard to characterize exactly how much additional demand is created by the hdbstabilizer on a relative basis (mainly because it's fairly clear that a lot of reported volume on some centralized exchanges is not real).
But what is quite provable is that the DHF, which funds a lot of development for the Hive ecosystem, is profiting substantially from the stabilizer (which in turn means the cost to the blockchain of all that development is lower). From my point of view as a Hive holder, that's good enough.
So, the devs benefit and not necessarily the user. That's what I said I'm the beginning. You guys are already making plenty.
From my point of view, almost nothing you have said above is correct. Hive devs are not making a lot of money, relative to what they do. And every Hive holder definitely benefits from the work they are doing. Hive literally wouldn't exist without them.
Are you referring to profits by devs that also invest in Hive as a cryptocurrency (which not all them do, of course)? And if so, don't you understand they could make similar profits just by investing in another cryptocurrency and doing nothing at all?
If I were vying for a piece of the pie I'd do the same thing, speculate,exagerate and make assumptions in the positive. The fact is, there's more development here than most anywhere else and much of it unnecessary for success.
That being said, you are basically the one top account that can make or break most other projects, even your own. That model is exactly the same as the American Congress and is hardly decentralized.