In reality, I believe that retail will be of little importance in this cycle. In the last cycle we started talking about institutional adoption, and it is true that it started then, but I think that when it is going to be noticed, when there is going to be real institutional adoption, it is going to be in this cycle. So, whether there are more or less retail investors, I think it will have little impact when compared to institutions buying (or selling) billions.
I agree with you in terms of Bitcoin and major alts (esp ETH and Sol) but what about the other alts and shitcoins? I can't see institutions buying those.