You said a lot here, 
Let's start with market fundamentals for virtually anything: When demand is higher than supply, prices rise. When supply is greater than demand, prices fall. What is the compelling reason to buy and hold Hive? 15-second "elevator speech" version.
"You should buy and hold Hive BECAUSE ___________"
You've got 15 seconds. Go!
Let's just say we're pitching this to your average blogger/vlogger, or "refugee" who's sick and tired of the vacuousness of FB/Insta/TikTok and wants a venue with more "meat on its bones."
It doesn't matter how much people keep polishing the code, building scaling and various technical aspects of Hive. The analogy I have been using for years is that it doesn't matter that you've build the world's greatest sports car... if you're living in a remote village with no paved roads and nobody knows about you.
I'm approaching my 10th year here, but also approaching my 10th year of pointing out that we simply cannot afford to just be "Decentralized Crypto Blockchainiacs" as if that's the magic unicorn dust that makes a success. Nobody cares. "Decentralization" remains meaningless to 90-95% of the population. "Censorship resistant" might carry slightly more depth.
Thinking about, that situation from Alicante you describe... I have repeatedly suggested "Light" accounts as a way to reduce the barriers to entry here. Your basic "sign up with Google/Facebook" that gives you access to everything except financial features. You start with a 25HP "loan" (to minimize RC issues) which can be a delegation from a DHF sponsored account that goes away when the acount actually reaches 25HP. You can even watch your rewards build in your account... but you can't touch it until you get your actual keys, which requires you to commit to a full account. Light accounts come with the additional proviso that if a "light" account goes dormant for more than 6 or 12 or 24 months (whatever) whatever Hive is there is automatically burned. Not only would it facilitate entry; these signups could serve as somewhat of an inflation reducer.
As for the DHF... great idea, but I believe it should be contingent on several things, including "no business plan showing revenue, no funding" and an additional requirement that that some part of the funding (10%? 20%?) MUST be used for external marketing of the final product. In other words... time to emphasize projects that offer utility to people outside the walls of Hive.
Along with that, don't forget that you're basically asking for a "grant." Do you have ANY idea of how much detail and documentation goes into a conventional grant proposal? And how much reporting is required to account for where and how the funding is being used? Grants aren't just a magic cash dispenser!
Lastly, we also need to let go of (at least in part) this myopic thinking that somehow "Hive's built in user base" is all that's needed for a DHF funded project to become successful. Sorry... WRONG. Go pitch your show outside Hive and see if anyone cares. If they don't, maybe you shouldn't be asking for money.
And yes, I am well aware that maintaining basic infrastructure matters. Could be the DHF needs to be segmented into discrete allocations for different types of projects.
Final thought about the "Ponzi" question. Hive isn't really a Ponzi, in much the same way as some of the Network Marketing programs I was familiar with 30-40 years ago weren't Ponzis. The problem tended to be an overemphasis on selling the program rather than selling the products. We need to start pitching the tangible benefits of Hive, not just Hive the concept. People invest in stuff they can USE, not just cool ideas.
RE: HIVE all time low, just hit 5 cents. I am buying, powering up, but I think the current model is failing.