I'm more and more convinced that bitcoin is nor digital gold, and certainly not digital cash, but is rather like a digital naked derivative speculative asset.
That is the present situation, yes. But we can talk about utopias, or not?
Your observation that "hodling" is essentially a greater-fools game is totally right. But it is not mandatory that this will stay the same forever. The reason is that Bitcoin, or cryptocurrencies in general, do(es) have some advantages with respect to traditional international money transmitting systems.
So companies making profits of these advantages can extract value from the Bitcoin ecosystem without needing to engage in the greater-fools-game ("hodling"). They simply extract their profits from their customers, like companies do in the traditional fiat-based economy.
There will be a point in the future where Bitcoin hodlers would have to understand that if they want to continue to make profits they must invest in these companies, not only in Bitcoin tokens, because the Bitcoin price cannot grow in an infinite manner. If all people of the world are invested in BTC, then we have reached this "price cap".