I see money as units of resource allocation. There are only so many available resources at any given moment. More units of allocation means less resources allocated per unit.
I'm also not an economist. :)
There isn't and never has been a one-to-one relationship between money and stuff. At best it is inductive.
Just as with electrical engineering, the real world requires a reactive supply, which is what allows electrical innovation beyond direct resistive loads.
Electrical supply engineers hate reactive power, but without it we don't get iPhones.
The power triangle gives the best engineering analogy to the way the monetary system works.