I dont get it at all, but thats because it has always been claimed that a digital copy is not the same as stealing, say an originally hand painted - not exactly

I dont get it at all, but thats because it has always been claimed that a digital copy is not the same as stealing, say an originally hand painted - not exactly reproducable oil painting... So exactly, aside from may bragging rights, does a tokenized digital "original" mean. Are they checking the file creation date? Must the original be in the original file-format it was created in (meaning a .psd, .ai, .dwg etc) file? I just dont understand the value.