The community of a meme and degens push the price up.
If there is a narrative or a story for it - that's even better, especially if it's associated with a meme that's already big.
Memes live till the hype about them lives

Guess when you say community, this already includes their founders and this can even include those degens. They all can contribute on pushing the price up due to demand but founders do it for its project to attract more people and if they aren't really serious about it, they will then dump most of their hodlings later on.
Yep.
It at least feels more natural and organic when there is a story and a path to follow.
Not only giggles and profit at hand. Though, most would look only after it.