Don't people who use their BTC to buy from Bitcoin-accepting merchants usually replenish their lost BTC after a while? That would create a net neutral effect on Bitcoin prices.
I doubt that most early adopters, who still have
hundreds thousands of BTC bought for a few dollars, would want to buy back the same amount at a price higher by a few orders of magnitude after spending them with a new merchant.
FTFY. Early adopters can easily replenish and even increase their BTC holdings by trading.