To the extent that thought experiments suggest real experiments, they are indeed valuable. I disagree that they can 'reveal ... results', however. For instance, Einstein's thought experiment was designed to 'prove' that QM was wrong. Obviously, that result was incorrect.
In 1935, Einstein and friends published a thought experiment that basically said "Well if all this quantum theory is true, then locality can't possibly be a principle." It turns out that locality isn't actually a principle of physics and now we have entanglement, Einstein's "spooky action at a distance."