Exactly. There never was a perior where you could have created value out of nothing. In private placements (pre-IPO) we do it all the time. Company is owned by its directors who typically paid not much for their own shares. Then investors come and it's marked up +10000%. This is fine and pretty much the only way to do things in that world. But coins are not stocks, and doing it with a coin hurts the coin.
The devs have had the same chances to buy it as anyone else. The devs' average buyins are in the same BTC0.004 range. The devs own a lot compared to their total stash, but none of them is even listed in the TOP-5 holders. This is rare. This is precious. This bodes well for the economy because it creates the possibility for those interested in economy to take the leadership, which is lacking in nerd-controlled coins.
People do tend to forget that coins are not stocks. It's a great point.
Is it possible to destroy Monero? I recently quoted Warren Buffet in a thread. Now I'm going to go with a philosophical predecessor of his, Benjamin Graham. Graham said that in the short term, markets are voting machines. In the long term, markets are weighing machines. In the short term, people can have opinions, and FUD can rule the day. Price can be driven down, and that may be happening with Monero. (Or it may not.)
In the long run, though, if Monero has true advantages and innovation, the short-term price "destruction" that results from FUD, hatred, etc... simply gives us a buying opportunity.
This is where it's important to realize that cryptos are NOT stocks. They are MORE resilient and LESS subject to pressures like bankruptcy, de-listing, etc...
My take is that the advantages of 1) talented and deep team of devs, 2) fair launch, certainly compared to many cryptos, 3) innovation with regard to anonymity, 4) maybe even whale support--in the long run, I think the weighing machine theory makes it unlikely that Monero will be destroyed.
Makes me want to accumulate more, in fact, because the short-term price pressures might make buying more attractive.