Everything you just said is only true for stocks that pay dividends now, or may pay dividends in the future.

It is not true for companies with zero intention of ever paying dividends.

Even if the company went bankrupt, you own a sliver of their real product

Historically, when that happens, the creditors walk away with the assets. The shareholders get nothing.

but the stock itself is intrinsically tied to the literal ownership of those profit generating assets.

That’s the scam. It’s not. In practice, the sole value of a zero-dividend stock is the speculative value.

it is not tied in theory or in practice to something of perceptibly equal realized value.

Electricity has value. Crypto value is intrinsically tied to mining costs. That would make zero-dividend stocks a bigger scam than crypto.