Moxie's story on #Web3 was very good ( https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html ).
There are many centralizing forces already in the space and the idea that an digital receipt magically associated with an image could be worth money is absurd.
But if you use Metamask a little bit you notice that everyone who has an Ethereum wallet has an identity that they can use to log into all compatible websites. One that isn't owned by Google or Facebook or the even Ethereum Foundation. One that the user generates and controls.
One that is is many ways better than that provided by their email-provider, or their telephone-number-provider, or Facebook-login or whatever else we are mostly using.
What I'd hope web3 really addresses is *identity*, because the current system is awful.
It's badly encrypted, it's badly administered, its' surveilled and it's owned by megacorp and government.
The identity's owner is powerless against the bureaucracy.
Some kinda public key should be your identity really. Portable between sites, generated at the click of a button, and entirely under user control. Unconfiscate-able.
Well, other than stealing private keys of course, I mean Facebook can't take it not that you can't lose it.
I have hoped something like Berners-Lee's "solid" ( https://inrupt.com/solid ), and owning your own data might be better than putting it on a blockchain though.
But like Moxie said. Nobody wants to run their own server and you can't stop a gold-rush.