Towards the end of the piece I was suddenly struck by how similar the works felt to NFTs. The old rich dutch put "oil NFTs" in their houses for display. In a virtual world (or metaverse), your "house" is in the virtual domain. An NFT monkey fits.
If Rembrandt pranks his neighbours with a cut out servant wench he paints in the window and we roll forward 400 years.. where's the NFT here? I have this Rembrandt. He painted it. It's worth $200m because it exists.
The fish on the wall looks real but it's also a display of wealth. In a pixel world, the stuff on the "wall" doesn't have to look "real". It just has be displayed as a token of wealth.
Was the primary purpose to display wealth or to have fun? I would think more people derive more enjoyment from entertainment than they do from trying to lord their wealth over others.
A bit of both, just like NFT? I'm sure Wall Fish were great fun, but you couldn't acquire them except at great cost.