Excellent introductory parallel. : )
I also haven't invested anything anything in any cryptocurrency and don't see Steem and Steem Dollars as real money, but only as a potential for money, as you superbly pointed out.
For me, this is even more true because I also don't intend to cash out anything for the first year, I'm reinvesting every SBD earned back to Steemit either through bid bots or through powering up.
As one of the picture you used says, I believe that my non-thinking about all this as a business will ultimately make me earn more. Of course, I (we) might be wrong, but so far so good.
Cheers! : )