How does Satoshi's anonymity affect the trust of users and investors in the Bitcoin network? Can this anonymity be considered an asset or a drawback for the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency?
I think it's neither an asset nor a drawback: it doesn't matter to anybody now.
I personally believe there are only two plausible reasons Satoshi is still anonymous: either he is a dead (or imprisoned), or Bitcoin was a project built by the CIA/NSA. There's no other reason I can think of that somebody would let $60 billion just sit there.
Interesting perspective!
While some may see Satoshi's anonymity as irrelevant, it does shape perceptions of Bitcoin's independence. Your theories about Satoshi's identity are intriguing.
How do you think Bitcoin would be affected if Satoshi's identity were revealed?
Dead: It would make no difference whatsoever. I suspect most people realistically assume he is dead.
CIA/NSA: No difference to the market price, at least in the short term. For most consumer investors of Bitcoin these days, Bitcoin is just an entry on their investment portfolio with the name, "Bitcoin". It's no different than any other meme investment, and the only thing that matters is the price going up or down.
In the long run, some of the "mythology" behind Bitcoin would be affected. A lot of people believe a lot of untrue things about Bitcoin (viz. that it's hackproof, fully decentralized, etc.), and while the revelation of Bitcoin being created by the US government as a law enforcement mechanism (aka a honeypot) would not directly dispute those technical things, it would make a lot of true believers more open minded for the first time, and many would see Bitcoin more rationally, which would probably diminish it's value overall since these true believers no doubt are at least some component of Bitcoin's price support.
In other words, with Satoshi being unknown, Bitcoin zealots are free to assert, "Satoshi made Bitcoin to abolish world governments" or something like that, and while that is not technically true, they say it all of the time anyhow. Any revelation like this would make it impossible to make silly assertions like this (although I suppose for some anything is possible
).