Ofc they are but they compliment each other in synergy. Speculative price will wear off in time if it has no real value, hence utility.

If the speculation were primarily on HIVE itself, then I would agree completely. HIVE is not a store of value type of asset at all. But I think much of the speculative value is not about HIVE at all but Bitcoin. If HIVE only had fiat trading pairs, that would be very bad, unless we are able to demonstrate real progress generating utility value. But the traders actually see HIVE as a vehicle to gain access to more BTC. HIVE has many trading pairs against BTC and HIVE is very volatile, making it the perfect vehicle for a speculative gambler. If Bitcoin moons and achieves a six figure dollar value or beyond, I'm guessing HIVE will go to heights never seen before in the history of STEEM let alone the short history of HIVE.

The above is a real possibility making all the cat pictures that earned 50 cents potentially massive earners. The only thing that, in my opinion, can throw us off that course is investors losing interest in the altcoin space as a whole. HIVE is not some random very small cap coin that has nothing going for it. The Justin Sun debacle generated quite a lot of interest and got many heavyweights interested in Hive.