You are holding on because it could become something. Sometimes that hope is right. Sometimes it is the exact thing keeping you stuck. Knowing which is what this comes down to.
Short answer: sometimes, yes. Situationships do become real relationships, but usually because someone ends the ambiguity on purpose, rather than by waiting or hoping harder. The version that quietly turns into commitment on its own is the rarer one, and betting on it is how people lose months.
You are not foolish for seeing potential. The question is whether the potential is moving toward anything, or whether it has become the reason you are staying put. For a situationship to become a relationship, something has to change on purpose: a moment where the ambiguity ends rather than drifts, and one person shows they are willing to build rather than continue.
The difference between patient hope and stuck hope is something you can assess rather than feel, once you know what to look at: behaviour over time rather than intensity in the moment. What it cannot tell you in advance is how the other person will answer, which is exactly why asking is the only way to find out.
Give the ambiguity a date rather than a feeling. Decide what you want, decide when you will say it, and say it once, kindly, at a calm moment. Whatever the answer, you will have traded months of guessing for one honest conversation.
Go deeper
Why You're Still in the Situationship gives you the psychology of why you are stuck, the assessments to find out where you stand, and the exact words to get clarity, commit, or walk away. Five profiles, full-page assessments and a complete script library.