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?
Bitcoin in the long run doesn't lose value, this is why people buy and hold it. In the long shot term, it might looks like it's not growing or come down and reduce value but in the long run, it will definitely protect you from inflation. What am I saying? Don't think that Bitcoin is expensive today, people that saw it at $3k all thought the same thing but today, look at the price, many times bigger than what anyone would have expected of Bitcoin.
Buy and hold, that's the primary way to benefits from Bitcoin, some people might discouraged you that it might not go above that price but never say never, it will go up in value and you can benefit through this and lastly, don't leave your Bitcoin on the centralized exchanges.