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Why Not Just HODL
HODL'ing increases/decreases portfolio value, which is different than earnings. To realize earnings - to have them in pocket - one needs to sell. If one only HODLs they haven't made anything. In fact they're down the cost of acquisition. HODL'ing by definition makes no earnings. Look no further than the IRS: PV gains aren't taxed, earnings are. So when someone says "if you had just HODL'd you would have made x", that simply isn't true.
What they probably meant was, "if you had just HODL'd you could have made x", but then they're talking about buying and selling, not HODL'ing. The contradiction is that to make earnings from HODL'ing, one has to stop HODL'ing; eventually there has to be a sell. It's easy to look back at the charts and identify the optimal entry and exit points, but buying and selling decisions don't occur with the benefit of a crystal ball.
HODL'ing doesn't have a sell side, which doesn't mean it's an irrelevant investment strategy given that one day cryptocurrencies could be a widely adopted medium of exchange. However I think HODL as a meme conflates investment and trading, and presents to those interested in buying crypto a binary approach of HODL/not-HODL when in reality a spectrum exists. At the same time the more the HODL ethic is adopted as demand for cryptos increases, the more that supply is kept off the order books, meaning prices should rise. There's an irony in there somewhere.
In my observation the crypto markets still tend to rise and fall together, generally with the price of BTC except when it surges and sucks the air out of the room. This makes diversification through cryptos largely ineffective, but makes a diversification through strategies relevant. I see benefit in a portfolio of strategies running in parallel. When some are weak others are strong.
For example, BlueCollar can earn in down markets, but on the big upswings it's earnings don't outperform PV gains from HODL'ing. Figuring out how to combine a host of strategies - market making, HODL'ing, dollar cost averaging, swing trading, etc - is what interests me.