It's not just trading, it's about circulating the coins within the ecosystem. That can be achieved through trading as well as through merchant adoption. HODLers are simply hoarding the coins into their coffers which are not helping anyone. If we want to see growth of crypto, we should be spending instead of hoarding it. The more it circulates within the ecosystem, the more prominent it becomes to create a value for it.
So the correct word is not just "Trading", instead it should be "circulating!"
I don't think you can equal trading to circulating for the purposes mentioned
The correct reference frame would be real value versus speculative value. In this manner, trading doesn't add so much to real value (though it still looks better than dumb holding at first glance) as it adds to speculative value. So while I agree that "circulating" is the right term but I can't possibly agree with your inclusion of trading in it. Even from a purely technical point of view, trading doesn't involve much circulation as 99% of it takes place without traded coins leaving an exchange