The thing is...
If you think about it, there have always been schemes like this. Maybe not involving complex computer calculations, but the sale of essentially useless items for vast sums of money.
For example, the art world has always been a bit crazy. A Van Gogh painting is deemed to be worth tens of millions of pounds. The very same painting suddenly becomes virtually worthless if it is discovered to be a brilliant forgery.
The financial value of something is purely what someone would be willing to pay for it.
I like watching Aussie Gold Hunters but it always strikes me as being a bit crazy that somone can make a huge amount of money by digging up a chunk of metal that they can hold in one hand. 5 kg of gold today would go for around a quarter of a million pounds!
NFTs may seem obviously stupid but they are not really a lot more stupid than other very stupid things that people
DON'T realise are stupid!