Memes are ponzi and 99% of the time you will get rekt. Invest in projects with real teams and business usecases. Projects like XLM, UTNP, Q Blockchain, and IOTA. Look for ISO20022 compatible chains.
It's true about meme coins that most of them aren't good and might just give you a loss. And if there are legitimate ones on them, only a very few and I don't have them anymore. Those that made such profits from it will have hard time in telling you that they will not stop investing on it because of what they have made. With the ones that you've mentioned, I only know IOTA and XLM and the rest, I don't know if they're really good projects but we have our choices and biases on this market if it's about the projects that we're investing.
Can anyone explain to me how the value of a meme coin is derived and why people think they are investable assets for the long riun?
It's because of their history that they've made such tremendous gains during the last bull run. So the hype that's been made from it is what making investors that they'll still make money out of it in the next bull run.