Bitcoin was always supposed to be digital cash. It even says so in the original white paper title.
Where did this myth start that we need to 'let this go'?
It doesn't matter what use cases were described in the original white paper it it has been what 8 years now? Things have changed Satoshi is gone, block size is 1mb, double spending is a thing and easy to do and merchants shouldn't be expected to wait 10 minutes in a physical store. Bitcoin no longer makes sense as a digital cash and never did for in store use with 10 minute blocks.
3 years ago if you asked "isnt 10 minute confirmations and double spends a problem", you'd have 10 people explaining that credit cards don't confirm for days, that double spends are difficult and risky. There are solutions to detect double spending by querying the mempool. Unfortunately these are not effective if there's heavy network congestion since a doublespend can be attempted much later with a higher fee.
It is really sad that we still have a 1mb block in 2017 but it won't last much longer.
I just don't see the point of a merchant to accept Bitcoin, the amount of Bitcoin users is small and the amount willing to use it like cash daily is a lot smaller. The merchant has to have a confirmation or take the burden of risk, the fees to have it converted to fiat instantly makes it uncompetitive or they have to worry that the $30 they received for a meal is worth $20 by the time they are able to exchange it.
The user doesn't have many advantages for using it as a daily currency either, they have to keep converting fiat to Bitcoin, they need to either be up or down with how much they have to spend and have no way to fight against it. They have to deal with almost no merchants accepting it in person, if they hold it on their phone they have to be extra secure with their app downloads.
I mean Google wallet now allows free transfers to anyone via email and directly into their bank account, it is easy for merchants to accept without fees and gained mass acceptance over night as a merchant doesn't that sound like the obvious choice?
1. Yes if Google wallet is truly free (which I'm not sure it is) it makes more sense in the short term. It may not always be free, and wouldnt you want a currency of the people for the people, not big brother google and the banking system
2. I have serious doubts that Bitcoin can survive as a store of value without the high usability/utility and widespread adoption. You agree the amount of users is small -- why would anyone think it will retain its store of value if the user base can't grow. Sounds like a tulip bulb.