[skyzadev]

There likely is some foul play involved in some cases yes that's for sure. For example this Beeple thing looks like it's a scam to pump a token which Beeple has a stake in so that they can then offload the token at high prices to new unsuspecting buyers.

However just on your point "Anyone can mint an NFT that points to whatever" - sure they can but those NFTs will be and should be worthless. You are able to prove an NFT came from the actual author since it would have been signed with their private key.

When all the fake demand settles we will see if there is any real demand here or not. I myself have no interest in buying any NFTs, at least not yet :).