While this is true, early Bitcoin adopters started to conflate the two. Broadly speaking, Bitcoin has seen three or four phases:

1) Cypherpunks with a strong counter-cultural note till 2013

2) BTC as a currency + payment system ("Cheaper and faster than Western Union!") till 2016 after 1) exhausted the addressable market which is small. Lightning network is the semi-centralized attempt at resuscitating this but I have my doubts.

3) "Digital gold", SoV from 2017 when 2) fell on its face

From 3) on, you can't really call it a currency anymore as it just doesn't work well. And if it is no longer a functioning currency (despite El Salvador calling it one), IDK what the point is, really.