Never hurts to take profit along time way. HODL is not always the best answer.
I think many people learned from this experience. Its not bad to take profit sometime, but because of unpredictable market people choose to stay on bitcoin, suddenly bitcoin dumped so hard. Lets give more time for bitcoin to recover, I know he can make it.
People who try to optimize profit taking (read: are not entirely happy with hodl and try to take profit along the way) may find themselves without bitcoin when the next massive wave up arrives and may as a consequence entirely miss tha train. That is why I personally like hodl: I don't leave the train, so I will not miss it when it suddenly leaves the station.