I really love this post. Because the title is exactly the same way I feel about the role of punks on hive as well.
In the past month, I have bought and given away dozens of punks to users of liketu whilst running several participation challenges. I have used them as just a small incentive to create engagement and participation. I think they have been quite successful at achieving that.
I have also created a way for them to use them as reacts on liketu. Not exactly revolutionary but they are a fun way to "use" them, particularly in the social context and well, if Hive is not social, and not fun, then we're doing something wrong.
Unlike mr TM, I don't believe that "many users were turned away from HIVE because of short form content" -- actually I believe it is the opposite.
If we champion things like ProjectBlank as well as rewarding micro-engagements such as commenting, then we are already half way there to rewarding short-form content in the same way as well.