I agree and the pandemic has sped the defi ecosystem as well. Now people are more interested in sending peer-to-peer transactions and cutting the banks and other institutes in the middle. And financial institutes are aware of this change that is why they are widely accepting and investing in developing cryptos.
I think the reason why bitcoin was so popularized was the fact that we started to hate these big banks and wealthy people, that is honestly what I believe was the cause why bitcoin and all crypto became so popular, which means that eventually that grew bigger and bigger, look at 2020 for example while the amazons and apples of the world grew so big, and while tesla made so much money, the world was in poverty and hunger and was dying in millions.
Hence why I believe defi was liked even more, why? Because in most other coins there were "teams" behind it, and with defi it is totally decentralized and gives the whole power to people, or at least more power than other coins. Which is why I believe over course of years we are going to see top 10 filled with many many defi coins and only a few non-defi coins will be there like bitcoin or ethereum or bnb.