Or if the game that accepted those NFT as in-game items shuts down, then these items cease to exist as well in any meaningful way, at least for the reasons it might be valuable in the beginning when I purchased it (stats in game, rarity, etc.). If the game ceases to exist then the NFT is just, what, a trading card that shows some scarcity/rarity?

I really don't get this argument at all. I bought an in-game mount for World of Warcraft as a NFT, WoW shuts down, where the hell am I going to use the in-game mount again? A shitty game that tells me "your WoW mount works here as well!"?

It really feels it's all a preparation for the "metaverse" bullshit.

No game is going to do the "your X game items work here", since it cuts off any revenue stream they have, and the NFT itself is almost definitely not going to include a functioning asset, just a token that you own mount with an ID of XYZ. It would be on the game developers to create art and code for every single NFT they want to support.

Exactly what I assume, hence why I don't see the value on the argument of "owning an in-game item", there is nothing to own, everything is on the hands of the platform that enables whatever I own to exist.

NFTs != images. Art NFTs are one implementation of NFTs (and not one I’m a fan of).

A token representing a Magic card doesn’t need any association with the art on that card, it just needs to exist so anyone can verify that I purchased that card (and therefore the ability to use its mechanics) from WoTC. A 3rd party game that allows me to play Magic can verify the NFT card ownership and can use it’s own art or no art at all, just like they do today.

The only difference is that today’s 3rd party Magic sites don’t have verified ownership of cards so everyone uses the most expensive cards.

Only in a superficial way. A lot of the early NFTs pre the 721 standard did not bother with an URL; the Cryptopunks don't. The catalogue of what exactly each token represents can work perfectly well off-chain. If people care to trade Bored Ape tokens, they will do so even if the URLs are broken; whatever marketplace they are using will manually make sure the right images are shown etc.