The most interesting DAOs I'm part of (Vector, Solidity Guild, Def) have no token and no treasury. Just really smart, talented, kind and overall awesome people.

Isn't DAO just a Discord server? haha

All of them had plans for tokens but we never really executed on that. No need to — the community grows slowly via invites, doesn't attract people who are looking for tokens

do they have any sort of on-chain instrument that denotes membership? if not, what makes them DAOs and not DOs?

shared ethnography --> value accrual from fellow contributors