I like your word that btc has faced tough times that is much more applicable rather than keep on saying that bitcoin is already dead. And we all know that it is not going to happen as bitcoin is going to be tougher for having a lot of investors that supports it. Especially there are lot more that are trying to consider the use of bitcoin in their industry.
The infrastructure of the bitcoin is still being built. More people are aware of the bitcoin. So its price will rise.
You could be right. If people are fed up with GMaxell, they can hard fork it to be the Classic or Unlimited.