So, governments, institutions and even individuals may well start out considering that they will just accumulate 1% or some modest amount in their budget (investment portfolio allocation), and then they continue to find more and more and more reasons to increase their cornz allocation and it becomes a bit of an unstoppable snowballing of the accumulation of bitcoin.
I suppose, you think that we are at the early stage of bitcoin accumulation by governments and institutions? as I remember Microstrategy bought bitcoin for the first time in august 2020 and for several years there weren't many companies willing to repeat this step. who knows, may be this time also interest for bitcoin will decrease after some kind of global event.
We likely can logically deduce that many countries, institutions and/or individuals are going to end up suffering some kind of bitcoin rug pull, yet at the same time, they also may be screwing their own little selfies in some of their own cashflow management practices... and yeah, some of the countries will be printing their fiat to buy bitcoin and others may well not be advantaged by bitcoin in terms of their own inabilities to spend within their means, so they will continue to abuse debt like they have historically done, and bitcoin may not end up advantaging them if they don't figure out how to manage their budgets even within a state actor or even large corporation kind of way, and it seems that bitcoin will still reward the prudent rather than the reckless. .... including recognizing and/or appreciating the power of holding your own keys (to at least a decently large proportion of your stash), yet we are still witnessing how these matters are going to play out in the coming years as larger and larger players are coming to bitcoin, yet some of the same fundamentals about bitcoin still apply to them, even if some of the larger entities have been so spoiled by fiat and their status in the fiat debt system, that they might not recognize the power of sound money and/or following prudent cashflow management practices.
you are right, countries can print fiat to buy bitcoin and also can issue bonds to buy it. but now many countries are still afraid of making such steps. another limiting factor is the presence of conservatives in government bodies. they prefer gold and traditional assets so they don't see any value in bitcoin and consider it as very volatile speculative asset. although many people have recently seen how volatile can be the stock market.
That seems to be pointing out the level of early that we continue to be, and surely some sovereigns and/or quasi-governmental bodies might find it more convenient to get exposure through ETFs, and others might consider some form of self-custody or ways to have strong checks on their custodians (private custodial arrangements), so the solutions in regards to how they hold their bitcoin might not be clear, and even Bhutan does not seem to be completely transparent regarding their bitcoin holdings. and they seem to have a lot, relative to their size (GDP, budget and population).
as for me exposure through ETFs is the sign of early stage of adoption by corporations/governments/funds. I think over some time they will prefer some form of self-custody or using custodians of institutional grade with all the related services like full insurance.
You are expressing a truth that seems to apply whether you are a government, institution or individual. Those with greater discretionary income have more options to buy bitcoin and even more options to screw things up but still end up accumulating more bitcoin than those with smaller levels of discretionary income..... yet at the same time, it seems to me that a decent number of governments, institutions and individuals are going to get ahead of the similarly-situated (or better off) status quo governments, institutions and individuals based on their level of aggressiveness in accumulating bitcoin within their means and without screwing things up, so they may well be way smaller and with fewer resources, yet bitcoin may well end up contribute towards their relative advancement in the pack of relative comparisons.
of course, those who starts bitcoin accumulation earlier will have chances to close the wealth gap with wealthy countries but their possibilities are still too limited. and I think in many countries/governments there is sufficient number of opponents of aggressive bitcoin accumulation.
As many of us likely realize, there can be a bit of a mal-incentive for countries and local governments to be accumulating bitcoin (and/or shitcoins) through confiscation.... Many of the laws around confiscation can be unjust, yet it is also unjust for countries to print money and steal from the population by diluting the currency, even though many countries do engage in printing and currency dilution.
I completely agree and there won't be any trust in such governments and countries who unjustly confiscate assets. BTC holders will leave such countries and move to places where the laws are fair and investors are protected. as for printing money, it's an old problem for many countries and that's why bitcoin is getting more and more popular.