There's demonstratably pent up demand. For one, Bitcoin had transaction volume doubling every year until it hit the block size limit [1]. Since then, transaction fees have skyrocketed, as a result of growing competition for limited transaction space [2].

Ethereum has similarly had rapid growth in transaction volume [3], which will need scaling solutions to continue once the protocol's inherent limits are reached.

[1] http://www.coindesk.com/data/bitcoin-daily-transactions/

[2] https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-median_transact...

[3] https://etherscan.io/chart/tx