Isn't it fascinating how you people always compare BTC units to units of something actual.
That's because it is, James. Like ALL money, each issued unit of Bitcoin represents actual work done.
Fiat currency (another form of money), however, can be issued in advance of the work actually being done, thereby resulting in there being an over-supply of units to the economy, causing inflation and saddling every participant and even future, yet-to-be-born, participant with the debt of needing to do the work it represents as a result.
Does that clarify things for you?
I already knew that the Bitcoin protocol is set to issue units of nothing after some work is done. But where did you get the idea that because of that the unit of nothing represents work? If I give you a grain of dust after you do some work for me that doesn't mean that dust is the unit of work. It just means that you were stupid to trade work for dust. In the case of Bitcoin we have even greater stupidity because work is traded for nothing.