What it means is pundits have spared no opportunity to ridicule anyone who has invested their money in BTC, pontificated that BTC has no value, that it is a fad, that it is a bubble, etc. For 10 years. At some point don't they have to capitulate from that provenly wrong position and at least admit there's something there?

What is driving the price is price discovery. More people are becoming comfortable with it as an asset as the FUD described above has continued to be debunked. As more people become comfortable that drives demand which increases the value.

As a hedge against inflation it works for a number of reasons. People generally price it in dollars, like stocks or real estate. As the dollar inflates one would assume the value of BTC would increase as investors have more dollars to invest into it, driving demand.

But the "something other" is more and more people agreeing it has value and therefore creating more demand for it and therefore creating higher prices. This is how any asset works.