Your understanding is incorrect.

Maybe this analogy will help: Just like you take your car keys out of the ignition of your car when you’re not using it, you take your bitcoin keys off of the internet when you’re not using them. 70%-80% of all car keys in the world are right now not in the cars (as they are mostly parked). But this does not mean that those cars will not be moved for years or decades. It just means that the owners of the cars are practicing good automobile security.

Cold storage does not mean “will not be used for decades”.

Moreover, many coins that are in the cold storage of exchanges are nevertheless having their ownership constantly adjusted as traders on the exchange buy and sell them from each other while leaving them in the exchange’s custody. This especially where the institutional speculation, buying and selling is occuring — and almost none of it is happening with coins that are “hot”.

As long as you cling to the incorrect notion that all cold storage coins are all going to be kept uncirculated for years and decades you’ll be stuck though, because you’re holding on to various incorrect ideas about what this means for their ownership and usage.

So I hope you can get over this mistaken perspective and realize that there is a difference between “kept secure” and “never used”.