In Lebanon, $500 USD goes a long way, and a lot of KYC rules are under that limit. All manner of mechanisms exist such as gift cards and cell phone minutes to make conversion without KYC. And to be honest the entire KYC system is pretty ineffective anyway, a straw man can be found extremely easily if they have a pulse and a valid ID card.
I’m sorry the truth doesn’t match what you want but this is reality I’m speaking of.
I think it's clear that this whole process is not really circular and hinges on people who collect bitcoins thinking they will keep growing in value. These folks are willing to not be able to get out for now, but they will be making a hell of a lot of effort to push the croins onto all of us because it would put them right at the top of the pyramid along with Satoshi and friends.
Hawala has been a thing long before crypto, with plenty of experience creatively dodging such regulations. And I would expect there to be a considerable intersection between the two in a place like Lebanon.
