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.
But ratail investors should no be neglected because they are the most important people to the sustainability of Bitcoin. It is the retail Investors that have been keeping Bitcoin active in the previous years that there was no institutional investors. The institutional investors can decide to stop investing in Bitcoin collectively and they will achieve that therefore we should not make the market all about them or we will be heading over the decentralized market into the hands of the centralized institutional investors. Then they can have control of what happens as everybody will be following them to buy or sell. They are already winning but it is not too late to take back the market form their hands. The retail investors need to come together with their number and oppose the institutional investors not following them blindly.