I actually do not consider this to be rambling because you bring up very valid points, most of which I agree with.
I think it legitimate to ask what is the difference between bitcoin and fiat if the amount of bitcoin can be doubles simply by forking. We have witnessed two the last few months with another coming in a couple weeks. Where does it stop?
Personally, I dont think there is much future for BCH and even less for BTG....BTC keeps rolling on, perhaps for the very reason you mention. Ultimately, these new tokens do not offer much improvement over BTC and only confuse the general public.
We will see how the community continues to react to this. As long as there is free money, people will go along for the ride. I mean, isnt this what the banksters did for decades with their fiat?
That's what scares me, the greed of the common people who are accepting to be lured into what it will eventually be the "real" Bitcoin bubble.
Without BCH, BCG and all these high-profile, mining-pools-backed, hardware-mining-companies-supported coins, Bitcoin will not be in a bubble, because there won't be any artificial pumping of the volume. But then, again, without BCH, BCG, etc, probably the Bitcoin price will be much, much lower...
So it's tricky...
I am not sure that without the other alt coins from the forks that BTC would be lower.
Bitcoin gets all the publicity. Does that publicity draw money into BCH and BTG? Honestly, I dont think so. My view is that people could care less about these coins....they are quick money and then they will disappear. BCH really hasnt done much the past 3 months and BTG had even less fanfare.
As for the common people, I do not believe they are even close to being in this market segment yet. So few are even aware of cryptocurrencies that the potential for the masses is still way down the road. Of course, they are the last ones in.
Perhaps these forks are a learning curve the community needs to go through. If BTC ends up still the king after all this, people will start to realize that it is senseless to fork (other than some quick cash). And if there isnt much value in a token, the miners will drift away. That happens, watch those alt coins collapse overnight.