For me in practice, I hardly have made any serious gains from Bitcoin, Yeah, apart from using it as a payment medium for jobs I do for clients. Are there other ways people like us who are late adopters benefit from Bitcoin?
Early adopters who were able to store their coins from that time until now made a lot of money, because they were able to accumulate a lot of coins when it was worth nothing, and their returns have multiplied as the price of BTC increased over the years. For recent adopters, you have to buy when the price is low, and you have to buy a lot of coins, to make good returns.
However, do not underestimate the benefit of using BTC as a payment method, it also aids people to accept cross-border payments faster and easier, and these are some of the original reasons why it was created.
I guess we are never late with bitcoin.