Coinbase is as much of a customer of Ethereum as grass is a customer of water
$ETH is a vital resource, not a service provider
well yes I agree with that but putting aside the priority, the stupidest thing about it is that not only is coinbase a customer but *coinbase literally held 150K ETH for years*. through ups and downs and goods and bads. through people saying L2s were the future to saying L2s are bad and evil and should die. because it believes in crypto and ethereum and is proud to build together with other crypto protocols and companies.
i can tell you with 100% certainty that when a business (and the leaders inside it) invest that much in a protocol (way more than any other company), hold it through the down market, but are relentlessly attacked for not holding.. enough.. it doesn't feel good. and feeling matter!
if i could give one piece of advice to ethereum and the community of people who love ethereum it would be to stop moralizing ethereum's customers and attacking those that are outside of what your perceived morals are. we see this with coinbase but we also see this with the negative response to memes, to trading, to defi, to financialization. it's good to have a protective immune system for the *protocol* but attacking the customers who use the protocol and ecosystem is IMO incredibly counterproductive and will only lead to people feeling alienated.