The idea that DCF does not apply to assets which only accrue value in their endogenous token is correct.

However, ETH does not entirely fit that definition. 

While it's true that staking issuance is entirely endogenous and does NOT create value, the burn side has real USD-denominated demand.

ETH and gas are NOT the same asset. They have a floating exchange rate that is independent of the ETH/USD market. The price of ETH is not relevant to how many USD it costs to make a transaction. If ETHUSD drops, gas/ETH can still go up. Gas is denominated in dollars.

Therefore the value accrued via the burn is sourced from an exogenous source, and DCF fully applies.

To put this another way: imagine instead of Apple taking dollars for iPhone and then using those dollars to do a buyback, they decided to cut out the fluff and instead got you as the customer to buy and destroy stock in exchange for an iPhone. This is functionally identical:

- You got an phone
- tokens were destroyed
- dollars went to the marginal seller