Absolutely agree. The rate of growth and addition of new users is the nest metric to discern the medium and long term value of a user-based asset; including even Bitcoins.

I posted about this using some math-based derivations in a paper some months ago part of which was summarized here:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/a-review-of-a-few-fundamental-metrices-that-drive-bitcoin-value-and-what-they-currently-indicate

@jerrybanfield I posted an educational piece here after a few newbies that got encouraged into crypto fell for the non-fundamental hype that passes for analysis these days. Would appreciate you take on it:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@kenraphael/the-2018-cryptocurrency-market-correction-has-shown-most-of-the-trading-analysis-on-social-media-ineffective-in-a-bear-market-a