The assumption is there is no value in a system which is currently insufficient for use as a currency ecosystem, and doomed for obsolescence as other cryptocoins prove to offer objectively more effective feature sets.

  Bitcoin is inherently deflationary as coin creation slows to 0.

This is exactly what makes BTC ineffective as a currency ecosystem and thus counter-productive for speculative hording. Speculative hoarders assume the value comes from limited supply, and so the problem is two fold; the system disincentives spending, starving the economy in paradox. Additionally, as speculators place their bet that BTC's value is derived from a limited supply, we see there are already numerous competitors with improvements over the BTC protocol, and many more sure to come.. so this supply is not limited at all.