This leads to the prevailing question of whether the price leads or follows the network's hashrate...

The hashrate follows the price in PoW systems. Miners mine to make a profit. If the price of BTC goes up, more value is distributed in block rewards leading to more mining.

Increased hashrate does not drive up the BTC price. As long as the hashrate is sufficient for security there is no major benefit to a larger hashrate. It doesn't add value to the network. Also hashrate alone doesn't reflect mining centralization. The hashrate could double but become more centralized. That should not increase value.

Why would anyone think that price follows the hashrate?