Perhaps I've choose my words poorly, what I've meant is that over the course of the last 3-5 years, the period when people were actively saying "Blockchain, not Bitcoin", Bitcoin's price increased by a lot, which I think is a sign of trust. Even the current bear market is in my opinion not a sign of weakness, but totally normal considering the prices during the last bull period.
When I used to frequent the old JREF forum (for skeptics, in case you never heard of it), some of the members there used to call bitcoin a solution in search of a problem--meaning that it doesn't solve any current problems the world is having. While I don't completely agree with that, it does not surprise me in the least that bitcoin hasn't been more widely adopted than it has. The average person isn't looking for a new form of currency and would not see the purpose of paying for something in a currency that you'd have to buy somewhere and hope that volatility doesn't cause it to lose value before you can spend it.
I too agree and disagree with this statement. Bitcoin is not going to achieve mass adoption and replace fiat, like many people here think, but Bitcoin has many uses, and there will always be people who value their freedom and privacy, even if they are a minority. And "a solution in search of a problem" sounds like a perfect description of blockchain, rather than Bitcoin.