I think the perceived value comes from the assumption that contracts can be written perfectly. Apparently, some people believe that the problems encountered so far are just a matter of weeding out the problems and eventually contracts will be much less likely to have loopholes like this.

I don't really agree with that worldview, but not strongly enough to bet that it won't reach some fairly safe equilibrium at some point. Even then though, a major bug could be lurking for years just waiting to be exploited later.