Surely Ethereum isn’t a scam?

Important disclaimer – I don't want to get into a Holeywar, I just want to get the views and opinions of the community, but the more I think about it myself, the more questions I have.

Ethereum is a well-established blockchain network that has gained significant traction and popularity within the cryptocurrency community. The Ethereum network has been instrumental in the growth and development of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which has seen explosive growth in recent years. Many DeFi protocols, such as Uniswap, Aave, and MakerDAO, are built on the Ethereum network, demonstrating its usefulness and practicality.

and blah-blah-blah, but!

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• If you read the original whitepaper, you'll see that it was never really possible to build a network capable of enabling revolutionary decentralised applications. In reality, all smart contracts and applications either incorporate traditional banking methods for ether (what we now call DeFi, but which have long existed in traditional banks) or try to mimic traditional applications, but fail to achieve the same widespread adoption. If I am wrong, please feel free to share examples in the comments section.
• While the capitalisation of the network seems to grow due to the existing "blockchain value", newly minted cryptocurrencies or even identical NFTs are inflated by "pseudo purchases" with ether. In essence, what is the point of capitalisation if I keep investing the same currency in myself and artificially inflating my own value? If I am wrong, please correct me.
• Furthermore, all updates to the Ethereum network are strictly technical in nature, which brings technical solutions that are already available on other networks, but in principle does not offer any added value to network participants. If I am wrong, please correct me.