"Expectation" means that there is some probability <1 that they will return cash to investors on any given day. You have a finite time alive. It's not academic

"Expectation" means that there is some probability <1 that they will return cash to investors on any given day. You have a finite time alive. It's not academic to conjecture that there's a very high probability that you, as an investor, will never see a yield on the capital of your investment. If you knew with 100% there will never be a buyback or dividend by AMZN while you are a holder of their stock, arguably you are making the same trade as someone buying bitcoin or gold: expecting someone else to come along (who perhaps expects to have a longer lifespan) to pay you more for the stock than you did. Note: I am not arguing that buying AMZN is a bad idea, I am saying that the argument that there is no "underlying rate of return" for bitcoin is a poor argument coming from someone who is also telling investors to buy those stocks, many of whom will certainly never see direct yield on their investment, just capital gains.