No need for further debate, it's both. If the owner of the bitcoin wants to hold it for investment purposes and he sees it as an asset, why stop him doing so? and if someone uses it for transactions like what we usually do, then it has to be done for that purpose.
The thing about most of these commenters is that they probably aren't even doing either. Just confused people coming into Bitcoin and maybe keeping it at exchanges hoping to sell for a big profit (and to rebuy later).
Those already sold on Bitcoin for whatever purposes it serves for them are happily using it. As you said, there's no debate, and no point to the debate. Mystifies me why people get upset over those who only use it (or not) for X purpose.