Its impossible to go back and compare then with now. You would have to find a present blockchain with no monetary value and not considered much to begin with, too much has changed to really see things as they were then.
99% people just follow the crowd and the leaders
Not 99% but sure most people just follow and its easier to do so just like following an established path vs trying to find a new one is alot more effort and prone to fail.
everybody was against Bitcoin in the first year
Not really just people dont give a dam about something new and unproven, most of the time expecting failure or it just fades out to nothing would be correct; BTC is the rare exception and few thought or even cared to think otherwise.