Why Bitcoin

Someone posted a similar sounding thread earlier but my question is different. I am new to crypto and honestly don’t really really understand it well enough. I think I understand the point of decentralization and the anti-inflationary angle, but my question is how does/would a bitcoin economy actually work?

With a limited supply, won’t people just hoard? Wouldn’t this actually make adoption harder/impossible? Don’t you ultimately need people to start spending bitcoin as a currency and not just holding it? Would we have to be paid in bitcoin for it to really make sense?

And then my real question I guess, why bitcoin? Why not some other coin?

If some large % of the world misses out (missed out) on getting bitcoins while it is still affordable, what is to prevent people from flocking to some other token, making bitcoin essentially worthless and maybe kicking off an endless cycle where some coin rises and fall with the rise of the next one.

Sorry, really a newbie and just trying to understand the practical value of bitcoin outside of trading it like a commodity.

Edited some typos