What you make no mention of in this post is one additional component of any of us choosing to invest in our Hive blockchain. The so-called "second layer" options, like LEO, BRO, ARCHON, etc.
Yeah, I wanted to avoid this for simplicity sake and as I see it, it is a component of investing into Hive - it is part of the use case.
Only with the discretionary funds from my powerdown did I finally spend a little time to looking into these some more. Glad I did! My subsequent investment in them has been very satisfying!
Oh yeah - this is a huge part of it. I think that the Steem conversion allowed a few people to have a little bit extra "free funds" to experiment a bit with. Disposable income matters. I also think that making some income disposable requires changing the way we consume or at least exploring the potential we may or may not be wasting.
Base or second layer investment is an interesting question and I do not have a great answer. However, it is very much possible that a Second layer token outperforms the entire Hive blockchain in value - and can still leverage Hive for all its transactions. that is exciting in my opinion!
What this primarily required, for me (and by extension I suspect many others ...) at least, was simple. I needed to "break away" from the "choir singing" about what one must and must not do to be viewed as a "good soldier" here on our Hive blockchain.
I will not make that mistake again, as anyone choosing to look at my wallet now (vs. historically) will quickly discover ...
Everyone needs to find their own way here and in life. =)