What if Bitcoin never reaches a new ATH?

Ever since strict regulations were introduced in 2017, we've seen a substantial decline in Bitcoin's price across the market. It's believed that 2017 was the year where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies went "mainstream" as many people adopted them for their own benefit. The introduction of new regulations, ETFs, futures trading, and Bitcoin forks (BCH, BSV, etc.) could've had an impact over Bitcoin's price. Whales could be manipulating Bitcoin's price as we know, preventing the pioneer cryptocurrency for reaching new All-time-highs in price.

Imagine if every Bitcoin halving, prices would remain the same or lower than they were before. This would turn out to be completely unsustainable for miners, resulting in decreased security of the Bitcoin blockchain. Of course, the way Bitcoin was designed tells us that price should be going up over time. But I've seen how regulations and events in the mainstream world have negatively impacted Bitcoin's price to a point where it has taken a very long time to rise back up to its original levels. It's been almost 2 years since a bear market occurred (2018), and could last longer as we know it.

As it's said, "Patience is a virtue". We as "hodlers" of Bitcoin should be patient in order to see better results in the future. But, what if Bitcoin never reaches a new ATH? Then, I'm afraid that most people "hodling" Bitcoin will lose all of their investment in the long run.