The blockchain space is being filled with many working models for many purposes. You put so much emphasis on "investment", you fail to see any other perspective
That's a new one. Please expand on this "other perspective". Are you talking about "users" ? People who don't buy Dash to hold but rather just buy it to immediately spend at Church's Chicken ?
...
You seem to be arguing that sustaining the marketcap isn't important.
What exactly IS important then in your opinion ?
Well yes, that could be one of several use cases. How about decred and it's ticketing system. Or monero putting privacy before supply guarantees. With bitcoin it seems people buy to make more dollars. If investment and market cap was the only outcome we wouldn't have all these other projects.
Back in the real world we earn some, save some, spend some... isn't that the essence of money? With that in mind, I would most definitely like to see more people earning dash through real work, not just moving numbers around on a spreadsheet. I would like to see alternative funding methods added to dash e.g. crowdsourcing.
I don't entirely discount market cap and I agree with you that MNOs should be paid less, not more, I just don't agree with your assessment.
A dash masternode is worth $100K, that's the real value, the real coin. It's service is constantly measured and verified, providing speed, security and reliability. A dash masternode is worth more than the sum of parts.