Sure, but when one BTC was worth pennies there was precious little to indicate that it would be worth dollars, other than pure speculation. The scenario isn't that different today: there is currently no reason right now to think that one BTC will be worth thousands of today's (not tomorrow's possibly hyperinflated-by-the-Bernank') dollars, other than guesswork...
Actually, if you make a few assumptions, there is (see my post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=113606.msg1365598#msg1365598 ).
I just wish I had done the calculation back then, because even though I knew it could be explosive if it was adopted, I never knew just how explosive it could get. Knowing this, I probably would have spend more time figuring out the pro's and con's.