there wasn't just one ETF proposal to be rejected. there have been many in the past and at least 2 of them were in these past months. the one that got rejected was from Winklewoss brothers and this was not the first time it got rejected.
the other one which is the most hyped is from SolidX and SEC has not done anything about it yet.

but i agree with your title nonetheless. bitcoin doesn't need ETFs and with or without them we will have a bull run. it may be delayed a bit but it is inevitable.