sellpressure by merchants is a myth. I don't believe this story. Merchant use is very small compared to tradevolume.
I think the story is a try to explain this market but i think it's not the correct explanation. There is other more important factors than Microsoft selling 500$ worth of items every day for btc.
so in your view, everyone realized how useless this bitcoin tech is and quietly dumping everything they have, i mean that's the only way we could actually reach a Zero?! why now? why not earlier, why ever at all?!