yeah exactly the general game theory on this is usually expressed through the "free rider problem" basically when there's network security cost and only a subset of users pay for it (people making txs) everyone tries to be a "free rider", ie part of the group that *doesn't pay for security (hodlers). according to the theory, the security of such a network trends towards zero.

Free-rider problem - Wikipedia

whether it works out that way in practice is of course another story. but the point I want to make is that tail emission is a legitimate tradeoff. there are other tradeoffs Monero makes that can be criticized but its not reasonable to argue tail emission makes it shitcoin IMHO.