Oh wow, so we are colleagues, sort of? Because that's what I do for money: teaching English and German as foreign languages. That wasn't my intended career plan, but things tend to work out in their own ways, right? What's your native language, by the way? Your English seems deceivingly native!
As for Hive (and crypto in general) I realize its GIGANTIC potential, which goes so much further than moon-shots and lambos. In fact, I'd say it's part of a well functioning free society, no matter that after a decade (more or less) it's still mostly misunderstood. This is partially the reason why I remain in this space. But I also realize the reason why it hasn't become the social transformer it could easily be. There are currently very strong interests out there that can't let it happen. So in the meantime, we'll keep going sideways, and publish more posts about art, and beer, and beaches, and stuff.
As for the money, I am actually really happy about every single HBD that is spent on cups of coffee and the like. Similarly, I am happy when people convert their daily earnings into Bolivares or Cuban Pesos to make ends meet. All of this only works in favor of stability for the blockchain, even if on the immediate term it means withdrawals and thus a decile of the coin's value. For people like me, who have the luxury to accumulate their Hive, staking it is the way. So it is to each their own.
Finally, I can only second your last paragraph: We are humans, so doing human things is what we should be rewarded for. Apply that to the largest scale, and there would be no point in having yachts, at least not for the purpose of status gambling.