You're not wrong. But imo, this "mainstream" vibe you spoke of is a good thing rather than a net negative one. For years, a lot of people wanted Bitcoin ETFs. We also wanted Bitcoin to get adopted and today, the adoption rate is insane that even countries are creating natural reserves backed by Bitcoin.
We won't get the same thrill as watching Bitcoin grow from a small speculative asset from years ago that was still finding it's place on the global markets.
Maturity is overrated when it comes to excitement, but in terms of adoption, it's early what people wanted.
Cost of mainstream / adoption is a double edged sword imho. Sure, it will rise the price via institutional investors, but what's the cost?
While crypto fundamentals stay same at their protocol level, price is basically in the hands of politicians now. And it's more centralized around governments then ever.
Whole idea of crypto was being resilient against governments oversight, and now we are relying them pumping the price and because it's traded against fiat money, FATF made sure that any pseudonymous fiat out ramps including paper cash, will be impossible to execute in the future in larger scale
So imho the whole concept has turned to a mockery of Cypherpunk movement. Which was the main reason and ethos why crypto is supposed to be valuable in the core.