Recently, I've seen a bunch of PFPs getting new skins and membership benefits being increased, claiming "the brand is on the way."

I actually think more often it's just a short-term attention grab: when the hype is here, profile pictures become valuable; when the hype fades, all that's left in the community groups are admins saying good morning...
Long-term value really depends on two things: whether someone continuously uses it for work or as an identity endorsement, and whether the rules are not constantly being changed like temporary workers.

After the wave of cross-chain bridge thefts, I became more cautious, even checking the contract and permissions of membership NFTs for any strange vulnerabilities first;
That time with the oracle's abnormal quotes, everyone suddenly reached a consensus of "waiting for confirmation," which is quite realistic—better to be slow than to get cleared instantly.
Anyway, my own strategy is like patching: small fixes and minor adjustments—verify what can be verified first, and for what can't, just treat the profile picture as good-looking and don't assign it too high a value.