There's also a psychological comfort in seeing the store of value in the palm of your hand. Have you ever owned a 1 ounce 99.99% pure gold coin? Holding it in your hand and marveling at the glitter is something else. Then exchanging it for a (not huge, but reasonable) profit later on to buy something valuable is also satisfying.

In difficult times you can buy stocks in companies that thrive, but for some this can be too challenging psychologically... If the whole market is crashing, why put money back into it? Even if it's on a side that supposedly profits? And this whole bitcoin thing, where does the money go? Thin air?!