Can we drop the whole "blockchain" shtick and just start calling this space "crypto"? Bitcoin combined a cryptographic protocol with an incentive structure to produce something incredible: digital cash that can be held and transacted without a central authority. The innovation was in the combination of protocol components, not the data structure that resulted ("the blockchain").
The problem that we're actually trying to solve with all of this is how to provide a root of trust. Blockchains are a way to do that, but I've yet to see a compelling use case beyond digital cash. Attempts to implement any transaction more complicated than cash settlement on a blockchain will inevitably run into the fundamental problem: transactions are contracts, and contracts will always require a legal framework and judicial system to mediate. You simply can't remove that requirement and all of the "inefficiency" that comes along with it.
The problem that we're actually trying to solve with all of this is how to provide a root of trust. Blockchains are a way to do that, but I've yet to see a compelling use case beyond digital cash. Attempts to implement any transaction more complicated than cash settlement on a blockchain will inevitably run into the fundamental problem: transactions are contracts, and contracts will always require a legal framework and judicial system to mediate. You simply can't remove that requirement and all of the "inefficiency" that comes along with it.