How does Satoshi's anonymity affect the trust of users and investors in the Bitcoin network? Can this anonymity be considered an asset or a drawback for the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency?
An asset definitely. Satoshi's anonymity has proved substantial to Bitcoin growth so far so much that it would be very unnecessary for him to reveal his identity now that Bitcoin has already become a global movement bigger than a one man's parade. I see how sentiment currently works in Ethereum. Vitalik does anything that doesn't align (sell ETH to find his personal endeavors or attend an event to sing, etc), price goes down. We don't want the same experience with Bitcoin.
Well to add to the quoted post, these countries consider Bitcoin as an asset:
United State
Canada
Australia
Japan
United Kingdom
Germany
So we really can say that it is an asset since government had already started accepting and labeling it as an asset.
Satoshi disappearance is still a mystery. All we have in our minds are just guesses and assumption but this disappearance had a great positive impact on the trust of users and investors in the Bitcoin network as time pass by. The timing of Satoshi disappearance is good enough to establish the trust of the community since it happens before Bitcoin became popular. For users and holders, the significant amount of Satoshi's holdings' threat to crash the market had been eased out due to his being absent.