> How exactly is it luck to recognize the value in crypto and buy a bunch? Because that's not exactly luck.

that's what luck is - they didn't recognize the value, but speculated on the potential value when it originally was valueless.

It could've crashed and burned, and it was luck that it didn't.

It's like seeing a lotto ticket, and claiming that you recognized the value of it (after the ticket has been shown to be a winning one).

> It's like seeing a lotto ticket

No, it’s nothing at all like that. The value of crypto was obvious very very early on. It was never going to crash and burn. Sure a black swan event could have wiped it out and still may. But based on what’s knowable, the value has been obvious since day 1 of bitcoin.

Most of the people I'm lumping into this did not and usually still do not understand why or how cryptocurrencies can solve problems.

This seems to be true of most people period. If there is a lump of people where a majority do understand crypto I haven't found it, possibly outside of tiny academic circles.