By your definition of a pyramid scheme the entire nature of Business and Investments then would come under scrutiny. Because manufacturers albeit Miners who sell to wholesalers/ retailers would all get together under your conspiracy theory to fixate price, outcome and policy ( and with no underlying technological analysis ). Now this pyramid scheme already exists with Fiat currency through the central banking system and fractional reserve banking - which is more like a Ponzi scheme than anything else.
But it’s all a matter of belief and manipulation of the masses to keep that power of money in the hands of a few and keep a Keynesian economy running that is much comparable to the game of Monopoly, except that you are able to live on indebted.
Furthermore, Bitcoin was the initiator, the pioneering sensation of a technological masterpiece that is the Blockchain technology 1.0. So all the System pawns are thirsting for the technology which is essentially Bitcoin but want to erase the name Bitcoin and keep Blockchain to themselves. It is all make belief, just as Fiat currencies are. The only thing backing Fiat is a gun to your head.
Why are the dinosaurs so adamant on bashing Bitcoin when it is like the first modem connected to your telephone in the 90s that just came out. Even then people like this were saying this Internet thing is useless. So let’s stop talking about Bitcoin alone and look at all the other possibilities with coins that are working as a new store of value and currency at the same time. Those coins where institutions like the SEC has a really hard time to figure out whether they are securities or something else. Well that something else is not possible to be seen when you have been indoctrinated all your life to think inside of a box and a narrative. It’s called cognitive bias. And unless you do not open your mind to a new world, the smartest and most savvy explanation will not even do the trick. If you wanted to understand without risking to ruin your own sense of identity, you would have. That is the core issue. Not what Bitcoin does or is, while completely ignoring how the different real Blockchains get its value in the financial sense. Rather talking about fake permission Blockchains that would just keep the foul financial system afloat for a little longer. And in conclusion just to inspire a little bit of open mindedness - How about every company has its own value and in the middle is a stable crypto..there are tons of new developments in this end where governments are not involved. Because Government work on taxes, that eventually all get into the hands of the few. Every public utility is paid for with disposable income and inflation. So who is the fraud ?