more convinced than ever that everything becomes tokenized, but
less sure how tokens maintain value when anyone can launch one

or to put it another way:
- everything will be tokenized
- tokens trend toward zero unless they're meaningful

anyone have thoughts on how to solve the conflict?

Don’t think there’s much conflict there. Decay is natural and healthy.

Assuming token price speculation gets balanced with other ways of returning value to long term holders, then tokens will find the dynamic euilibria they deserve.

Biggest problem is nothing new: hard to be heard; hard to find your crowd.