You're saying the truth. Most people who are complaining about Bitcoin are not considering the long term price. They are only looking at the short term movement, and I do understand their reactions are based on when they started investing their money and started experiencing loss. Anyone that invests in cryptocurrency at a rate that is low, and HODL it for a long term, they will be able to make profit.
Right from the beginning, if you check the all time chart, you will notice that the lowest in every year is usually higher than the lowest for the past years just like you have explained, but people are not looking into that.
Many people take Bitcoin as a way to invest, they see Bitcoin like a stock, buy and hold Bitcoin in a short term with their hope of being rich easily in a short time like so many people have done before. Right from the beginning, if you check the all time chart, you will notice that the lowest in every year is usually higher than the lowest for the past years just like you have explained, but people are not looking into that.
I know that's one-sidedly viewed but think about the outsider, they don't actually know how Bitcoin works, the only thing they know is that Bitcoin is expensive and so many people have been rich because of it. The more people think like that, the idea will spread without needing anyone to talk about it, it will lean deep down into everyone's heart.
And why not? Bitcoin is here and each of us can use it differently! It's a beauty of bitcoin, it can be a store of value, if you are investing and holding bitcoin is a store of value for you. What you two talk about here is trading, speculating, and yes btc can be used for that too, it can be used as a mean of exchange, to buy things with bitcoin. Bitcoin is what you want it to be.
Why people have a desire to label everything around, this is for that or that, why not be for more than one thing? And you need to be open-minded about that, today you will use it for holding, tomorrow for trading if you want, changes are a perfectly normal thing, do what you like and what you think it's best for you.