I remember the times when Bitcoin was only talked about on forums and there were occasional but negative mentions of it on the news. Nowadays, it’s a topic for central banks, big investment funds, and even global politics. For me, Bitcoin's main role is the store of value, yes. And the symbolic sense of having a choice not to go for a currency issued and controlled by any authority.
Bitcoin matured enough after 16 years since 2009 January and it has achieved more adoption exclusively its increasing use cases and utility with time. Be self custodial is very attractive thing with Bitcoin and it brings many people to Bitcoin block chain as they can not find it with traditional bank system.
Honestly, I don't think it will evolve into a mainstream payment network, not while fiat and the traditional banking systems are acceptable enough for most users.
As for Bitcoin becoming a political asset, I really don't want it to be like this, as authoritarian countries supporting Bitcoin would then affect its reputation even more than these days.
Governments have been trying to digitalize their financial management on citizens though CBDCs but they won't be able to convince all citizens using their CBDCs. So to get more users on CBDCs, they will have more and stricter regulations on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin won't kill fiat currency, CBDCs and governments won't let it happens so Bitcoin needs to be Bitcoin, focus on its own development and operation. People will choose good currency to use exclusively Bitcoin.