I absolutely should be expecting practical results, because most of the people trying to apply this technology are promising practical results. If blockchain proponents were just saying, "Hey, we're fucking around with some tech to see what happens," I wouldn't have any complaints. But that's not where we are. Instead, it's billions of dollars of investment.
Is it possible that there will be "a relatively-uncontrollable internet consensus layer won't be built upon with some interesting results down the line"? Sure. Lots of things are possible. But it's also very possible that after another decade of Bitcoin, et al, we'll still have just a bunch of stuff that's not adding at all to the world beyond a playground for scammers and some tooling for light financial crime.
Sometimes a small and ugly technology turns out to be the Internet. But most of the time, it's just a bit of garbage that never went anywhere.
Is it possible that there will be "a relatively-uncontrollable internet consensus layer won't be built upon with some interesting results down the line"? Sure. Lots of things are possible. But it's also very possible that after another decade of Bitcoin, et al, we'll still have just a bunch of stuff that's not adding at all to the world beyond a playground for scammers and some tooling for light financial crime.
Sometimes a small and ugly technology turns out to be the Internet. But most of the time, it's just a bit of garbage that never went anywhere.