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.
Even if it was now still vast majority of people would still be against Bitcoin because they don't know about the technology. Same it's to when new things are introduced to people especially when they have no ideas of how it functions they would automatically kicked against it because they don't know how it being used or how it functions and the benefits it would give them.
And Yes, we can't turn back the hands of time to where it was before or where it started before but now, I think people are becoming to understand how the technology works and also the benefits for holding Bitcoin in their custody.
Hypothesis 2: "The Bitcoin in 2009 was (subjectively) not the same as Bitcoin in 2025. It was not even similar to it. The Bitcoin in 2009 rather resembles the shittiest shitcoin in 2025".
I think here you are getting it twisted because Bitcoin still remains Bitcoin and since then there was no other Bitcoin that has launched or introduced, rather what I think that happens is that more people are delving into Bitcoin to know more it, and now it's not mostly valued unlike the initial time it was launched. So, I am against you here saying it was shitcoin and in fact if I was to say I would directly refers that to altcoins and not Bitcoin where all altcoin tape their knowledge to produce their coins.