What do you think, are we looking at a passing fad, something that gets "re-branded or re-invented" after the hacks settle down, and/or is DeFi currently on a path to keep getting stronger?
Defi wouldnt die since its become one of the foundation of altcoins. You may seem it dying but thats just because of the bear scenario. Different protocols have lost or been gone due significant factors like, lack of users, funds and even due to breach of some hackers and exploits of their codes. But there are bigger projects operates on defi and keeps building. Its just one way or another defi would definitely go back again with a bigger purpose I suppose.
Affirmative. DeFi is still an actual thing since it unlocks a lot of use cases for crypto. It's awesome that we have decentralized money, it's even more awesome that there would be decentralized products and services that we can use our decentralized monies to interact and actually get some value out.
As you already mentioned, the hacks and bear market have made it look to be dying but it's still in its early days, so we might see some innovative DeFi products and services that are actually secure for users in the not-so-distant future.