That window is quickly closing. The Circles, Paypals, are preparing to close it, at least in Bitcoin's current market as a speculation on the potential for a global ledger and money transfers without being tied to one behemoth (e.g. Paypal). Bitcoin is really a way of scaling Paypal to everyone while pretending it isn't (obfuscating that is) owned by Peter Thiel et al. Bitcoin is a reverse takeover of global banking by pretending it is open and fair. Bitcoin is the way you force national governments to accede to an international banking regulation.
I don't know, to me it looks like the more the Coinbase, Circle, Paypal, etc. turn Bitcoin into a form of ersatz crypto that is really at its core more like fiat, the more the door opens, not closes. If that wasn't happening already, Monero would have half or less of the support it has now.
This may be a slow, even multi-generational process. I expect that as a possible, though not certain outcome. I don't buy that this will all play out over the next 2-3 years, necessarily. Nor do I consider 0.1% to be much of a lead at all. Every credible crypto is milimeters from the starting line, and there may not even be a race to be won by one at all, as you said.