That being said, I'm sure a vast majority of the money would be spent on essentials.
That might be true, but think of how many stimulus checks actually went out (I don't know the number, but with everyone getting one it has to be huge). I have no doubt that quite a few recipients did indeed spend theirs on bitcoin or some other crypto. And this is the US we're talking about, where tons of people live well beyond their means with credit card and other debt weighing them down.
It may be a little ridiculous that the whole crypto world has started spinning over whether US stimulus checks will inflate the BTC price, as if $2 trillion would automatically go to BTC. According to some research, 80% of Americans have reportedly heard of BTC, while about
6.2% own it (probably in their Coinbase accounts).
Again, those stats may well be correct, but with bitcoin's market cap where it is how much collective buying would have to take place in order to spike the price just a little? I don't have the answer to that either, but I think the free money did have an effect.