Recently, someone asked me again: Are PFPs, memberships, and brands truly long-term value or just a wave of attention? Honestly, I now focus more on the "upgrade path" and "how governance is written into the smart contract," because no matter how good the avatar looks, it's just a social skin.

If membership benefits are only airdrops or whitelist privileges, they'll disperse once the market cools; but if you can clearly explain "who can change the rules, how to change them, and who bears the cost," and even make fee distribution and access verification transparent, then it has some long-term flavor.

Looking at Layer 2 now, the arguments over TPS, transaction fees, and ecosystem subsidies are quite similar—it's lively, but once subsidies stop, what's left is very realistic. Brands are the same; in the end, it still comes down to code constraints and game theory structures, not who has the loudest voice.
Let's look further.