[...]
If you bought in 1929 just before the downturn you had to HODL for 30 years until the price was back where you bought it
If you bought in 1966 just before the downturn you also had to HODL for 30 years until the price was back where you bought it
Don't believe it? see for yourself:
http://www.macrotrends.net/1319/dow-jones-100-year-historical-chart[...]
You're reading the chart wrong.
1) You used inflation adjusted prices which utterly inflates the recovery time and actually shows how much fiat -- not stocks -- lost in value during your given timeframes. Ignoring inflation you get a recovery times from 1929 - 1954 and 1965 - 1972. Not nearly as dramatic as you make it seem.
And the first timeframe included a world war.2) You're ignoring dividends. Crypto doesn't have them, but you can't assess stock prices without looking at dividends as well. Accounting for dividends aforementioned recovery times shorten even more.
gg