Thank you, @cryptorg, for a wonderful summary that reflects my motivations. 
I first learned about bitcoin in 2015, and then studied books, watched educational videos etc.  From that time until August 2017 my only interest in acquiring bitcoin was to participate in the now failed program of “small cross-border payments to relatives”; because I had become sick of Western Union fees.  However, I never bought any because the people to receive my payments had no way of converting bitcoin into fiat at their end. 
I have the intuition that this matter of receiving crypto transfers and making use of them to purchase goods and services remains a major issue around the world today among people with modest means. I would love to see an international survey of the capability to make use of crypto payments received, with  breakdowns by country, and  socio-economic category (the latter including education, of course).

Anyway, only after I saw the big price run-up of 2017 did I say to myself “OMG, you could make some money with this thing”. Then I did the research to  build my crypto portfolio.  Even today,  the amount of fiat money I have invested is so small that I have already written it off as a total loss (which means I will ignore the portfolio except to occasionally pick up some more “good stuff” when I see people throwing it out the window). 
So, when Mr. Buterin expresses his concern about the relatively high proportion of people who are in the crypto space and who are excessively concerned about profits, he's certainly not talking about me.