Walk me through this — why crypto currency?

Many of us have a tendency to look at Technologies without considering the Use Cases and the associated Workflows (i.e. walk us through what people do with it). This determines success (in the long term)

What are the Crypto currencies (e.g. Bitcoin) use cases:

1. A speculative investment: Buy low, hold it for some time, and then sell high. Nobody really knows which way it’s going. You’re gambling.
2. Doing something illegal: If you’re buying something illegal, looking to avoid taxes, or want to get around issues with an international transaction…Bitcoin may be for you. Just don’t hold Bitcoin for too long, unless you also want to also speculate (#1)
3. Improvement in how payments are done: How is Bitcoin better? Credit cards are better than Bitcoin because if you get ripped off, you let the credit card company take care of the problem. So how is Bitcoin better? It doesn’t make the transaction easier, there are plenty of financial tools with regular money. Is the transaction cheaper? PayPal and Venmo are free. So I don’t see any strong use cases here. I’ve heard stories of bundling contracts like with Ethereum, but exactly how is that better than what you can do now (e.g. less expensive? more trustworthy?).
4. Taking the power of monetary policy away from manipulative governments and bankers: We don’t trust governments much, but given FTX / SBF’s recent behavior, this doesn’t sound too appetizing. And improved security assumes you hold the private key for your wallet — but that would too inconvenient for most people, so they let an exchange hold it, all while thinking it’s secure!!!!! Again look at FTX!
5. A safe haven for when the financial system collapses: If there is a global collapse of economies and governments, including the US this might save you…but if that happens, some of us rather not be around for that. Plus, you would need to hold your own private key in your own wallet, but look at #4.

The only strong use cases above are #1 and #2 from what I can see. And #1 (long term growth of crypto) in the long term depends on the other use cases, so we’re really talking about #2.

Sounds to me like Bitcoin is good for criminals and people with money and power who want to avoid taxes and government oversight.