3) It seems like a lot of people are very focused on bitcoin's adoption by merchants, i.e. the "medium of exchange" aspect of currency, as the key to its success. But couldn't bitcoin still be insanely successful (in terms of its value) if it took off ONLY as a store of value? (And isn't that mostly how gold is used?)
I agree with you here. A lot of the gold bugs see conspiracies of manipulation and price suppression on the paper gold market. So they advocate taking possession of the physical gold to put pressure on the paper market. But with bitcoin its simple and cheap to take possession of the actual coins - just withdraw the bitcoins.
Also, the global economy is in a deflationary contraction phase of the cycle. Real estate falling, commodities, gold and silver prices dropping, stocks probably topped and trending down, etc. But bitcoin still holding up. If/when the shit hits the fan, or global credit starts expanding again, and inflation returns to global paper fiat, I could see bitcoin rising much faster (faster than gold even) in such an environment.
Of course, that depends on there being a strong bitcoin economy, a reliable network of trustworthy exchanges and financial services. Some thriving commercial services could only help (silk road is rumoured to have a revenue of some 400k+ btc stored at an address suspected to be for their coin-tumbler).
As long as we have such an ecology, the price/value will continue to flourish. Its been two months for you, but only six months since the price reversal from $2 after the bubble. You don't see the full consequences of a disruptive revolution overnight (Falkvinge predicts 10 years or 2019 for bitcoin, based on other disruptive technologies in his interview in the magazine). Give it two years, or more..