It seems like only a small fraction of bitcoins as well as other cryptocurrencies gets earned while the vast majority of the coins are bought. But when people buy coins, they obviously aim exclusively at selling them later at a higher price, which is what speculation basically consists in because it makes no economic sense to buy a cryptocurrency to spend it on goods when people can easily spend fiat instead. However, if the price goes down, people aren't going to spend their coins either. And whenever someone complains about prices going down, the only reply they receive is just to hold to their precious bitcoins, no matter what the price could or would be. I have yet to meet anyone telling these bag holders to spend their stashes on something useful.
Apparently, the HODL mentality kills the currency aspect of Bitcoin.
Above all of your point of view, may I know if majority of bitcoin users really HODLing their coins? If you will only based on the statement or discussions here in the community or whenever you see some on social media then I don't see any sense here. As if those HODL coins by an average player scan make an impact on the whole bitcoin volume on the whole as they hold. If HODL mentality kills the currency aspect of bitcoin then why it isn't happening now or before? Make sense.
There are countries who already legalized bitcoin as currency meaning the usage of bitcoin as currency is really on demand. You just didn't know the real stats but there are lots of bitcoin users who uses bitcoin not just for investment purposes but also to act as their main salary that will support their daily expenses.
I suggest to just go with the flow.