AFAIK it is often perfectly possible to actually encode image data on-chain, it is just much more expensive (and much less common as a result)
And sadly enough - several cryptocoins themselves are also this way.
I used to think cryptocoins were truly revolutionary. But the tech space is so rife with abuse, theft, scams that it doesn't feel worth it.
if you're an actual believer in NFTs, isn't that kind of the point?