One of the key differences is that Bitcoin itself can continue to exist even if all development on it stops or none of the promised upgrades come to pass.

Nobody is buying because "LN is going to triple the Q4 earnings" of "the new CEO is going to turn it around and post the first profit ever!"

So much of that dotcom crap was on people gambling not just on the price of a stock, but that the underlying company would turn out to be super-awesome, and not collapse into a pile of quivering pastel clipart.

There is a price of Bitcoin where it's current functionality and current fee structure makes it useful for transferring large amount of money internationally, or for buying certain things from certain online retailers.

With current network fees, it is absolutely to my advantage to buy BTC, then pay for certain things online with BTC because all I have to pay in fees is 1% to my crypto on-ramp, then the (currently very low) network fee.

The shops I use it at offer 20% off for BTC payments, and during sale periods they offer as much as 40% off.

Sure, I can use a few other cryptos too. But the advantages just aren't big enough to bother. If I'm already saving like $150, why bother messing around with Ether to save another $2 in network fees?

That these shops are still accepting crypto payments indicates it's worth it to them to keep doing so, for now anyway.

Which implies at least SOME people are buying BTC to use it to pay for stuff online and save money thanks to discounts.

That slow-burn undercurrent of demand has to put a floor on the price, somewhere. Might be way lower than what we're at now, but it's somewhere.