The scarcity of NFTs isn't artificially enforced, though. It's the core feature of the technology. It's what makes NFTs NFTs - they are Non Fungible.

Now - if you think of an NFT as a jpeg of a cat, you're right - there is no limit to the number of digital copies of that cat jpeg. But the actual NFT is the naming rights to that jpeg of a cat. If you own the NFT of the cat jpeg, you and only you get to say "I own this particular NFT of this particular cat jpeg."

Is there anything preventing you from minting another NFT of that particular cat jpeg? Well now we're talking artificially-enforced digital scarcity because we're getting into trademark law and other saucy shit. Does having an NFT of a jpeg somehow make the jpeg worth something? No it does not. This is the confusion the whole world has with NFTs. The world thinks they're pictures when point of fact, they are limited-use intellectual property.

You can buy naming rights to a star. It's abject nonsense and means nothing. You can also put your name on a cobblestone at the civic center. It's also abject nonsense and also means nothing. Yet people do both. In the former case, there is no scarcity - you're paying for a piece of paper that says "you paid for a piece of paper." In the latter case, there is scarcity - there are only so many bricks.

Western tradition has a thing against mass graves. We don't like to think of ourselves or our loved ones passing into The Great Beyond without a memorial, or without a shared memorial. We want to leave some form of marker, even if we have to share it. What do you think - do we waste more space with golf courses or cemeteries? We could totally dual-purpose that shit but we don't. So - what is that marker? What is its nature?

Fundamentally, it is "I am linked to this." We do this a lot when we're alive, too. "I am linked to this" through some intermediary we trust. Certificates of authenticity. Appraisal documents. Provenance studies. NFTs render it all moot - "I am linked to this, indelibly, visible to all, utterly beyond counterfeit."

That's obviously valuable to any government that collects taxes or demographics. And its first use case is Nyan Cat jpegs.