giving a creator 10$ is nice, but buying 10$ worth of their token is much better for the creator, as it establishes a market cap.

You hit the nail on the head there.
Until someone buys in, the token has no value.

There also needs to exist ability for that token to have value outside of that creator system. The establishment of an intuitive way to determine the value of each and every token created. Otherwise crypto is forever speculative, driven by hype.

That's why Blockchain/crypto is stagnant. There isn't a robust and unbreakable framework with a solid on/offramp into the real world.