Price is important, because there are people who see bitcoin as a tool to protect their money against inflation or any other kind of centralized parties' interventions.
just because people see it in that way doesn't mean that's what it was originally meant to be. and thus that doesn't mean that's what its purpose is. the danger of trying to assign some purpose to something that it was not originally meant to be well you do that at your own risk. as long as people understand that then I guess they can use bitcoin however they want to.
If bitcoin didn't have a decent value and growing potential on long run, people wouldn't feel incentivized to hold it and worse, they would fear using it, since the uncertainity of losing their money's value on the next second they acquired BTC would be huge.
i'm sure there's people that prefer not to hold bitcoin since its price fluctuates and they don't want that type of exposure.
Price is important, profit is important. That is what moves a healthy capitalist society, since it's disponible and accessible for everyone.
Price may be important to people but whats even more important is if bitcoin has a useful purpose other than just "hodling" and selling it when the price gets high. Because if that's all it is, theres hundreds of stocks in the stock market you can do that with and those are companies that have actual products/services. Buy Amazon in the late 1990s for example. If all you care about is making profit. And having a higher price.