You don't need to buy goods and services directly but it is a good way to store and invest your wealth. Most capital controls are mute once you've exited into crypto.

On what basis do they hit you? Anyone that ever has any link to crypto? That's everyone. Crypto has a level of security and plausible deniability, that makes such things unrealistic. That's why you don't hear about it happening often.

To many people under these regimes, there is much more security afforded to them by crypto than by their governments and currencies.