I don't think it's correct that the only relevant component of people using it is people speculating/pumping -and-dumping .

So, I would think that saying that it is a scam, is not true.

Note: I do not own any of it. Nor have I owned any cryptocurrency that was available on any exchange. (I've owned testnet ether, both pre release, and recently, but that's it)

It's worth noting that before the fork there was no ETC "movement", there was just people who were unhappy with the fork. Everyone expected the fork to go to ETH.

However, when sufficient mining power refused to fork, a movement coalesced from the people who opposed the fork.

ETC is still up %300 from its stable post-fork price. The current mining power is up 2x-4x what it was post fork as well. Most of the rise of its price was preceded by increases in its mining power.

This implies that people are putting money into mining it.

When a fork happens you end up with a lot of people who have duplicated coins, so you would expect the "losing" fork to have some significant price dynamics.

But the growth in hash rate and the sustained price implies this is not a "scam".

That said I don't know what its future is- it needs a roadmap and a reason to exist to become viable long term. But at this point you can't say that won't happen.

I hold neither ETC nor ETH.