Part of my research btwn Jan 2011 and April 2011 before I made my first investment was talking to key people one of which was theymos. He's been around at least as long as anyone else and one of the things I clearly remember him saying was that he could see significant consolidation to large server farms as tx volumes rose. And that he didn't think it was a problem either.
Be that as it may, it is diametrically opposite of what was pumped out for newbie consumption when they were trying to rope people in.
I myself always knew that it was a distinct possibility given the technical issues but figured I had a notable possibility of making a dime even if Bitcoin did go down the shit-hole.
I also figured that Bitcoin had the potential to become something worthwhile if clever people could rescue it in time. Again, that is why I'm so excited about sidechains.
In 2011 I would not have guessed that in 2015 the future of Bitcoin would still hang in the balance described above. I would have expected it to have gone one way or the other by this time. I did not anticipate that off-chain transaction systems (sucky non-sound-money ones such as the exchanges and coinbases though they may be) would give Bitcoin a chance to make it this far and still have hope. I guess I don't predict everything correctly.