I accept that bitcoin's long term future is less about the price and more about the application of the beautiful underlying technology, but price still matters. It gets people interested, gets people talking, gets serious capital interested and all of those things.

Also, if you are a long term believer with a limited budget then playing the markets gives you the potential to hold more bitcoins that you might be able to otherwise, which helps the future potential by concentrating bitcoins in the right hands.