On #1 I don´t see the separation you make between bitcoin and its underlying infrastructure, because I think that all were designed as independents parts of a whole "product" since the beginning.
I'm not making a seperation. I consider them parts of a whole system. That was my point.
Then maybe I didn´t understand very well your argument about #1. Specially when you say: "The kicker for bitcoin (the currency itself) is that bitcoins are required for this function, for no existing form of currency can cooperate with the Bitcoin client to this end"
The Bitcoin client was designed together for Bitcoins, so obviously no other currency fits in there. As well as the bitcoin network and bitcoin associated protocols that were also designed together with Bitcoins. And since bitcoins were designed as currency, the utility of that software, network, etc is not a generic or unknown utility, it is monetary utility.
My point is that, as the Austrian/Mengerian economist Carlos Bondone says, the Regression Theorem is unnecesary for monetary theory. Here I explain why:
http://eleconomistaprudente.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/bitcoins-and-mises%C2%B4s-regression-theorem/