Most of those that want to see an altcoin season do not really care about the adoption and the success of the coins they are holding, they want profits and they want them now, so adoption is not really what they are looking for, they want their coins to be hyped, they want high volatility levels since that has the tendency to drive prices up, once you understand what they want then it is easy to see why most members show no interest in the adoption of most coins, so while you are correct in your analysis you got the motivations of most people wrong.
You are 100% correct, and that was most visible when crypto when down with the price. Most of hyped users went to some kind of hibernation sleep forgetting crypto altogether.
All this people that want adoption must ask them selves what have they done to make it more real for other people around them. You can always talk to people, help them to download some wallets on their phones, transfer them small amount of some cheap coins that cost you same one cup of coffee just to push them in that direction. You can try to sale some junk from you basement on your local adds with notice that you also accept crypto as a way of payment.
