The problem isn't that Bitcoin is used for buying trinkets - the problem is that Bitcoin isn't being used enough for buying trinkets.
The economics of mining are going to stay fucked up until the transaction rate grows about three orders of magnitude.
We just have to find a way to get from here to that point - after that it will take care of itself.
Sidechains to the rescue because they are highly tunable and can easily create incentives for people to WANT to use them. And, of course, the net effect economically is very close to using Bitcoin as native chain due to the two-way peg.
I don't actually use Bitcoin at the moment because it is not competitive with the alternatives as a means of doing most of the economic transactions I do. I do sell them from time to time however. If I were able to, rather than sell them, peg them to a sidechain which did something I liked (micro-transactions for instance, or allowed me to charge my PayPal account that way) I would much rather do that than go through fiat using something like Coinbase.
In fact, in addition to the sidechains push-back from fraudulent alts, a fair amount of pushback may come from outfits like Bitpay and Coinbase who could get cut out of the loop.