Whenever someone states with seemingly absolute certainty that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme and also appears to assume that it will never be anything but a Ponzi scheme I ask myself: am I too optimistic or are they too pessimistic and non-imaginative?

I think Bitcoin does (right now) indeed partially show the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme.

But I also think that it's absolutely possible for it to evolve away from that (Ponzi characteristic) and instead become a reliable store-of-value-over-time asset (more reliable than USD on a bank account as an example) that millions to billions of people use.

Now before you say "store-of-value is bullsh*, Bitcoin just lost x % YoY". Sure, it did. But it always depends on the timeframe you're looking at.