Mining btc is not like mining gold.
The btc that is mined needs mining to exsist.
mined gold does not need mining to continue its existence.
Btc is totally dependent on continuing mining. gold is not.
But gold doesn't make itself easier to find if too few mine it. Bitcoin does.
to think mining has no effect on price and only demand moves price is to dent the fundamentals of btc as compare to gold or silver or any precious metal.
The point is that the offer of new btc stays pretty stable as long as one miner keeps crunching numbers. In other words, with difficulty adjustment a single miner can keep ALL the mineable btc in existence. This isn't true for gold: it does continue to exist even if no one mines it, but has little financial or industrial use when it's buried deep down.
if gold mining stops due to all gold being to hard to find, then all the gold that exist becomes more valuble.
since there is no more gold to be had.
if mining is reduced 100% all the mined coins are stuck and basically have no protection against double or triple spends if two people start to mine.
reality is you want btc to stay with a high price you need lots of mining.
when hashrate dropped 50% in spring of 2021
price followed and dropped 50%.
if gold production drops like mad the previously mined gold is not affected negatively.
we can type all night but the fact is btc baseline price is protected by mining.
gold baseline price is not protected by mining in the same way.