These days, I've seen a bunch of PFPs claiming to be "members" or "brands" to attract people.

Honestly, I feel quite conflicted: the truly valuable ones are often not about how good they look, but whether the permissions/resources can be delivered sustainably, whether the rules are clearly written, and whether the contracts have any strange backdoors.
To put it simply, attention comes quickly and goes just as fast, especially now with L2s constantly competing over TPS, fees, and subsidies, making a lot of projects ride the wave of traffic.
In a couple of weeks, they might switch to a different narrative.

My current habit is to not care about the story first, but to scan the contract and fund flow first, and mark what I can;
if I really want to go in, I treat it only as buying an "entry ticket," not as a talisman.
Anyway, in Web3, when it comes to brands, what ultimately matters is the ability to deliver, not the avatar.