Some good points here ! The way I explain it is that I think of Hive as a long term savings plan. It's okay to cash out some earnings (although I haven't yet), but as long as the amount saved gradually grows then your earnings will too.

That is particularly the case with HBD. It earns 15% APY interest if you've got it in Savings, which is better than pretty much any bank or savings account. So sticking HBD into savings and then just cashing out 50% of the interest means it'll still keep on growing.

How long would it take to pay for a new guitar at that rate ? If your friend has any money put aside to cover a guitar, then his post earnings (50% of which could be in HBD, and assuming he's any good as a musician, of course) would likely cover that fairly quickly.