You said it yourself already. If a project doesn't carry DeFi nor NFT in its discovery, just forget it. These are the two selling points for the crypto and they're not on the brink of settling for less as they keep skyrocketing with much adoption from investors.
It's just about the latest trends because in the past there were also many projects that did not bring the concept of DeFi or NFT in their inventions, and now these two things must be brought into the project because DeFi and NFT already have a lot of good responses from investors.