So the question is: To make bitcoin a forever prosperous gold rush or a mobile payment system like other similar solutions?
It's not an "this-or-that" thing. It's both.
If bitcoin was no usable payment system, it would have never had any worth. It's name is not bitgold, but bitcoin.
But if bitcoin would not have this aspects you describe, it would be just some kind of decentralized paypal (which is, btw, great). With those aspect it's some kind of decentralized paypal with gold (which is greater).
In this current situation, where it's unclear where Bitcoin is heading, too many people imho want to define what bitcoin is made for. There is no valid answer on this except: Bitcoin is made for what people do and what the network is capable to support. That's it.
Many people in eastern europe e. G. use Bitcoin to order from shops in western europe that don't accept credit cards from some countries in eastern europe. The same with people from africa.
Other people like to gamble in the internet, what is not allowed in their jurisdictation. Next people use Bitcoin to order drugs online. And other just use it to watch pornography without revealing their name.
And now there come some people and say: this usecases are not what bitcoin is made for?
I disagree: The question is what is Bitcoin the network capable of. Right now the network we have not the one we want is capable of very little. And we can't grow it or even maintain it with fees at their current level and block rewards dropping every 4 years. The Bitcoin community may grow by leaps and bounds over the next 4 years and its price may jump up to meet the level of investment miners have invested but unless we have a stable fee for miner income and reinvestment the network will fall. Transaction volume is not the issue its fees, block size is an issue about fees first then user accessibility second (transaction count) and currency usability is a distant 3rd.