Sounds like a very interesting place you have been.
I would have to disagree that "daily usage has not made any real headway".
http://moneroblocks.info/stats/transactions/m/12Improvements since end of 2014:
GUI is very close to being ready.
XMR.to (and shapeshift) allows you to easily spend your Monero at any BTC accepting place.
Mixin has now a network minimum of 2 improving privacy.
Viewkey works and is not just a concept.
Export key images with v.10 and check the balance of a cold wallet.
LMDB means you can run the wallet without sucking up all your RAM.
Ring CT in January.
Trezor implementation also workable but not exactly easy yet.
Probably more that I cannot remember, but XMR is far more usable than end of 2014.
That is a nice list of improvements. From memory the wallet or daemon used to run from RAM or something as well. I presume that has been upgraded as it was being worked on when I left.
Also from memory during the time that I bought, there was an attack or threat of an attack by 'BTCExpress?' and it caused a lot of jitters in the XMR community. XMR has obviously survived, but what was the outcome, if you remember.
One of the reasons that gave me confidence to add another 945XMR to my wallet was a prediction by Risto that XMR would become the hedge for BTC. By all appearances that has come true, displacing LTC which was always considered the de facto hedge to BTC. I was very surprised and pleased to XMR trading in the top 3 BTC volume with LTC no where in sight on Poloniex.
Just as an aside note - all my BTC has tripled in value as well while I was gone. So that was a nice welcome back!
Thanks for your advise.