NFTs are such a grift I wish they were just denounced, ridiculed and ignored by technologists and tech news sources
I also believe its a Digital Tulip, even more so than Doge coin. Even BTC (when tulips bulbs were a thing they were trading high too, it doesn't mean they have real long-ish term value)
China already banned cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, not insignificant portions of the US tech sector along with investors, including retail investors, are investing time and capital in the cryptocurrency and NFT scam markets.
The idea being that we live in a rapidly digitizing world (software eats the world) where everybody has a smartphone. To them it seems an inevitability that you have a digital wallet holding your assets, whether they be physical or digital.
In your case, it won't have a JPEG, which you consider gambling. But it might have concert tickets, a token of your favorite football club, assets from a game you love to play, or even the proof of ownership of your real estate.
I don't know how and if this vision will materialize but that's the big idea. Your concern that companies and institutions are invested in digital assets (specifically NFTs) is misplaced, the actual gambling is done mostly by big crypto holders.