The value is, in my opinion, he can sell them to investors. How to put a dollar/sat amount on that value, your guess is as good as mine. Smells like a pre-mine to me

Yeah but he could do that if he premined on block 0. I'd obviously prefer no premine but my point is that giving to existing Bitcoin holders only puts downward pressure on his market value because most people won't be holding them. They'll consider them free sats and sell off so he'd be better served using his name on a fresh chain where existing distribution doesn't put downward price pressure against miners of his chain.