What does matter is network difficulty, if coin is hard to get, it will have more value than if coin is easy to get. That simple. No, ifs, ands, or buts.
Not always true. Some coins, which are now dead, ended up with such a high difficulty that it would've taken years to break blocks. Value was $0.
There's a balance to be maintained, but most importantly for a coin like this, is the business front-end regardless of anything else.
"Difficulty over Blocks returned" is just an indicator of how desired a coin is, not always an indice of actual value. It's generally a good indicator.. but still. Difficulty has continued going up on BTC, but value has continud to drop, for example.
Agreed that the store is what is important with this coin. It is what sets it apart from the crowd. But the high diff coins that died? That was because of other factors. Diff. that could not adjust quickly enough after multipool attack, fork in blockchain while DEVs are MIA, premine dump, dog took a shit in Big Vern's yard, etc. All cryptos are subject to shit happening. But diff. and price are definitely entertwined. With fickle, flighty miners chasing every dollar blowing in the wind, the price adjusts the difficulty. With persistence, the diff. will adjust the price. You see it on every active alt. Here, the miners will keep diff. high, and thereby price, on this coin. Not because of community, which is the solution most alts try to promote, but greed(for a shiny new radeon of your choice), the base instinct of every human.
waltsmith