Gentlemen,
Some great and valid points have been made above. Speculation and price increase are necessary for fluent adoption, and more improvement is done on the system than ever. Just look at how they fixed the fork.
Of course, we need a quantum leap in infrastructure quality. That is holding us back severely, and that caused the recent crash. We need big money and big finance and big technology to help us on that one.
Yes, poor infrastructure is holding it back....but it's more than that. This forum exists in a tiny bubble. I feel like it's difficult for many of you to see outside of this bubble. The main reason Bitcoin needs real infrastructure is to give it legitimacy. The only way there will ever be true mass appeal is if the process to buy/sell bitcoins is seamless (getting there) AND it has legitimate backing by the types of entities at which Bitcoin was invented to thumb its nose. This may allow the general public to buy-in.
Bitcoin needs Wall Street and/or the large elements of the financial community. This grassroots effort will stall at some point without the involvement of serious forces.