I think the difference is, the 2017 "new money" getting in was all those with a get rich quick mentality. It was based on pure and FOMO. This time around, the new money getting in is "smart money" (not my term). They will do their homework and not FOMO into the first thing that sounds revolutionary. This is a major difference.
The get rich quick type will likely follow the "once bitten, twice shy" logic with regard to crypto simply because they were severely burned, or know people who were severely burned in 2018. Same thing happened the second time around with the dot.com boom.

Regardless, I agree with you...as long as the bulls are running, who cares.