Exactly. No other smart contract platform has been able to surpass Ethereum in usage and adoption within the mainstream world. While many of ETH's competitors are faster and cheaper to use for daily payments, they're missing decentralization and censorship-resistance which is vital for the Blockchain network's survival against oppressive governments and other third parties. And Ethereum has an advantage over its competitors because it's completely decentralized. Even if this year doesn't turn out to be the biggest one for ETH yet, it'll certainly grow in development and innovation. Once developers integrate PoS consensus into the ETH blockchain, things will become interesting for its price as demand will grow like never before. PoS will encourage users to hoard their coins instead of spending them.
Rest assured that Bitcoin's halving event will have a positive effect over BTC and other cryptocurrencies' price across the market. Ethereum may very well increase in price right after Bitcoin experiences a reduction in its block reward. And if the dev team adopts PoS thereafter, Ethereum will be able to reach new ATHs in price. Remember, "patience is a virtue". As long as ETH is still cheap to acquire (below $500), you could "buy and hodl" as much coins as you can before the excitement begins. If this turns out the become the biggest year for ETH, you'll be able to cash out much more money than you've initially invested. Just my opinion