Yes, but as you point out, those applications don’t need a blockchain to be involved. You’re just running an app somewhere that takes in data and transfers fund

Yes, but as you point out, those applications don’t need a blockchain to be involved. You’re just running an app somewhere that takes in data and transfers funds held in escrow. I agree that there may be uses for that kind of automation, but probably you’re going to want human oversight and ability to intervene, and blockchain actually hinders that.