I think it is not very important whether blockchain is actually the savior or not. Rather, it presents an alternative option that changes the landscape of the debate.
In terms of the Overton window (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window), it moves the idea of decentralized, censure resistant money from "unthinkable" to merely being "radical", or even "sensible". This should cause a similar shift on the other side of the window-- rather than having fully censurable state controlled money as being obvious future policy, we are having a debate about the explicit tradeoffs of that choice. The system we get will probably be somewhere in the middle of this, so the shifting of the window matters a lot.
So the existence of a technology can change the outcome merely by its existence, not by it's explicit adoption.
In terms of the Overton window (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window), it moves the idea of decentralized, censure resistant money from "unthinkable" to merely being "radical", or even "sensible". This should cause a similar shift on the other side of the window-- rather than having fully censurable state controlled money as being obvious future policy, we are having a debate about the explicit tradeoffs of that choice. The system we get will probably be somewhere in the middle of this, so the shifting of the window matters a lot.
So the existence of a technology can change the outcome merely by its existence, not by it's explicit adoption.