I can totally see why people just hide them away, and In terms of an ecos reaching 80k? I can see that happening within the next 5 years. There was a Monte up for sale 3 years ago for 19k, the same car (or near enough identical) sold for 40k recently.
Personally I think with a modified car you can strike a balance between keeping mileage down but still using it.
Standard examples with low miles are usually bought to enjoy from an ownership and aesthetics point of view, with no intention of racking up miles. If I had loads of cash then I would probably do both.