Security tokenization is the usecase. Security tokenization is a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Ravencoin is the only platform that does this on the base layer without smart contracts and with compliance built-in.
https://raven.wiki/w/Ravencoin_Wiki has a list of projects currently using Ravencoin but like everything else it is updated on a volunteer basis so may not be 100% current.
Maybe if there's a team that could release a project that achieved tremendously, it could convince a lot that this is not just a pump.
Miners are probably going to do trial and error to some POW coins until they find something that is worth their energy and could also pay their bills while the coins are also worth holding.
But weren't there an ETH POW coming too? If there isn't a split I guess ETC will likely be the best option. But like Ravencoin, people will doubt its usecase.