That's not entirely correct some ether will be turned into fiat but a lot of projects will actually be using more ether. Slock.it for example will take payments in ether and part of that ether will be going straight back to the DAO. Most of the early projects will likely have to be like this (due to the undetermined legal status of the DAO).
There is strong support for early projects to be those that grow the ethereum ecosystem for the mutual benefit of ether and DAO users (e.g. ether apps, exchanges like etherex etc.). This will potentially lead to progressively more and more utility for ether resulting in greater and greater buy support. It probably won't happen over night but as time goes on and ethereum use cases continue to increase then there will be continued upward pressure on price for ether.
Yeah: the same old virtuous circle for any new disruptive tech that breaks through that ol' catch-22. Interestingly, blockchain technology is following the same path as the old standards. The usual way to break through that catch-22 is to find niches where the new tech cut costs or increased reliability for old industries.
The first business-scale use case for the steam engine was not the railroad train. It was use as a water pump for mines, making it a handmaiden for the centuries-old mining industry. In this humble capacity, not only did it save money through pumping out water much more efficiently but it also added value by enabling mines to go deeper underground. Some of the miners who bought a steam engine did so to revive abandoned mines full of water that could now be pumped dry.
We're seeing the same thing with "blockchain." Who else but an accountant would get enthused about a permissioned federated ledger system's ability to scotch out embezzlement? For the ordinary bloke, this benefit is a yawner - but to a fellow that thinks "two signatures on every check" is the state of the art in cash control, it's really exciting.
With regard to crowdfunding, projects like The DAO herald a new era in which crowdfunding becomes the replacement of the Graneen Bank. It'll really show its stuff if it facilitates a kaleidoscope of small projects, including some idiosyncratic ones.
We're a long way away from the point when the crypto economy reaches enough critical mass to spawn a crypt-only economy, in which some lucky folks can live their lives without touching fiat. Until then, whatever gets ya there...