One word: Why?

Do they really think that Bitcoin maximalism has only to do with trading?

Bitcoin maximalism is defined (in my lexicon) as the superiority of BTC over all the other cryptos, as it is the most mature and with the most usersand highest security (every single commit is peer-reviewed), hence global crypto adoption should be hinged around BTC, not some other coin. Besides, media is already bashing mainly BTC anyway (such as your source) so why not make it the focal point of this counter-argument and hence, for maximalism?

Besides, stablecoins are merely a surrogate for the fiat currencies they represent - what is so special about them that will make the international community adopt a surrogate of a fiat currency, managed by a corporation instead of the govt.?

I'm a Bitcoin maximalist,because I think that Bitcoin is better than all the altcoins,tokens,shitcoins,etc.
I'm also a Bitcoin realist,because I realize that Bitcoin cannot dethrone the fiat financial system and cannot serve as a safe heaven,inflation protection tool(at least not in the short term).This makes me both a maximalist and a realist,I guess.
Stablecoins come and go(the algorithmic stablecoin,created by Terra Labs is just an example),Bitcoin Core is here to stay.
Futures are being used as a financial derivative in all the other financial markets-stocks,commodities,indexes,etc.
I've never heard someone on the stock markets to complain about futures/options trading to push the stock prices down.

To me, there is no maximalist in bitcoin, except you think bitcoin is competing with other altcoins out there, bitcoin is the only original crypto coin we have, every other coins out there are nothing but a bet or rather, a suggestion from different folks trying to suggest a better version of bitcoin but clearly, non of them have succeeded as bitcoin has continued to lead the crypto market ever since its inception.
Anyone who is a die hard fan of bitcoin is a die hard fan of the real thing, don't tag or call such person a bitcoin maximalist, there is no maximalism in supporting original things.
We can call or tag those who believe more in altcoin over bitcoin as altcoin maximalist, because they are yet to come to reality, but for those in bitcoin, they are the realist.

I'm not a bitcoin maximalist, but rather a shitcoin minimalist.

Anyone who actually spends some time looking at technical details and not just chasing get rich quick scams will reach a similar conclusion. Once you've been in this space for more than a few years, you'll start to recognize the same patterns emerging over and over again. I first saw it with ICOs, promising the world, promising better technology, promising unbelievable risk free returns, promising to dethrone bitcoin, promising to revolutionize money. They have, without exception, not achieved any of this, and the vast majority of people who bought them have lost all their money and are left holding worthless bags. Then came IEOs, ITOs, and a bunch of other acronyms, which all made the same promises and have again all fallen flat. Next was DeFi. Let's look at Luna to see how well that's going, shall we? The new kid on the block is NFTs, and anyone who thinks that paying tens of thousands of dollars for a drawing of a monkey is either revolutionary or sustainable is a moron.

Lots of people who are new to the space get sucked in by such promises, unaware of the many thousands of dead coins which came before which made the exact same promises. They either lose money and rage quit the space altogether, or they hang around, start learning, and slowly but surely stop chasing shitcoins and just buy bitcoin instead.

Personal I think bitcoin will always suffer from volatility because the hard capped supply and inelastic supply.
Given more and more leveraged play in Bitcoin, including Microstrategy and miners getting loan to get more miners, volatility may only get worse even, could easily crash anyone's life, a business, an economy who do not handle the liquidity well enough.

I am very certain a more digitalized USD will play an ever larger role in the next decade or so, along with Bitcoin.

It would be nice if bitcoin price acted more like gold, that would have made the case for bitcoin as a digital currency and less of speculation.

Exactly when we have seen politicians and other people in power talk about any other coin except bitcoin? Personally I only recall politicians mentioning ethereum recently, stable coins and some of the most notorious scams, every other comment they make about this market is related to bitcoin and no other coin.

This show us very clearly which coin is the strongest by far, those in power know that if they can destroy or at least tame bitcoin then the rest of the coins will not matter at all, which is why they concentrate almost all their efforts against bitcoin, and even with all of that pressure bitcoin is still here.

Bitcoin is neither under the impression of maximalism and realism, it's more or less free will acceptance. They made it so that we can ease of banking on day to day basis however over the period of time people made it into way to earn, profit, stock it and much more. Just like another share market it became asset eventually. Otherwise I am sure there would have been similar craze and outlook towards bitcoin as it was in the mid decade. It was something new, everyone wanted to have the full bitcoin and that slowly gained the framework of whole trading stuff.
However, one fact remains unchanged. Bitcoin is getting mined and those who are serious about bitcoin like institutional investors are stacking up bitcoin in cold storages! Irrespective of that its already realised asset others does not matter.

I am not sure what the correlation between bitcoin maximalism and trading pair! Earlier, we didn't have much choice of trading so people used to trade based on the bitcoin price of an asset. USDT stormed into the market and quickly became the main trading currency for many because of the calculation convenience and easy capital conversion during falling markets.

It's all about choice! Maximalism is a mindset and the world of trading operates on available options which increases the horizon for traders.

If bitcoin is said to be boring, of course that's a response for those who only see from one side, not from the side of the benefits that bitcoin will give. Remember that the bitcoin community is very strong, BItcoin is the main reference for all altcoins. Even that stablecoin will not be able to match bitcoin. Stablecoins won't be stable as long as they are in the crypto space, remember that $UST is a failing stablecoin at the moment. this is not the end of the bitcoin mechanism, this is still the beginning of a bitcoin advancement.

There are still people that are maximalists no matter what the market is showing them. It's easier and effortless unlike being someone who's too watchful with the market together with alts.
Well, the reality is that anyone can change their position freely and no one's ever going to stop them. Wherever you see the opportunities with your crypto market's journey, you should be fine doing what you think fits your investing style and knowledge.