Who gets to be king? Who mates with who? Who is friends with who?
Who is the Biggest Fan of <celebrity>?
Social graphs have scarcity built-in. Time, attention, and influence are permanently scarce and valuable.
If it wasn't for NFTs no digital goods would be monetized?
I know this because I pay my digital artists already, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally)
I also know this because I have friends who are digital artists who receive payments for goods and services, primarily via paypal and patreon. (including internationally)
It's an outsider view that artists have any serious payment problem outside of a tendency to set their prices too low out of modesty/imposter syndrome. (which is a common problem for many kinds of independent contractors)