The example you offered is confounding the commodity of money with the resource it is based on.
That's not true. There is "limitless" oxygen, yet it sells when you purify it and put it in tanks.
As long as devcoin is working towards something, it has value to whoever wants those things done
Oxygen when put into tanks can fuel things.
Devcoin when put into people can develop things.
The simile is there, it's not that hard to understand.