Degen culture has been an unmitigated disaster.

I‘d differ between
- the „normal degen culture“ aka increased (early Stage) liquid market activity during good times that can bootstrap economies & enable new lighthouse projects;
- and the „embraced 0/negative sum degen culture“ to draw purely short-term financial gains which may in fact also lead to long-term ecosystem wins because activity begets more activity (despite also drowning genuine, not hyperfinancialized, slow growth project builders in the ecosystem)