How essential is $NYM to the network's long-term economics?

Something I keep coming back to: how central is $NYM really to the network’s economics,beyond gas and staking?

From what I gather there are two separate incentive layers: node/gateway operators earning
from staking and relaying zk-nym pay-as-you-go traffic, and service providers who can
integrate zk-nym ticketbooks directly into their own apps so users pay for access in $NYM.
Is that roughly right, or am I missing a piece?

Trying to figure out which layer actually depends on $NYM staying essential long-term versus
which could, in theory, be decoupled from it.

Curious how others here think about it.

Gab