Darn, i hope you guys are not debating who is older.
Back to the topic of whether domains are worth something.
Domains are worth something "significant" only if end users will buy them. I pointed out that for latins, the idn by itself is not a whole domain to the end user.
An end user will have to acquire both the idn and the ascii version - this is not a choice. The end user MUST HAVE both version. Mini-site made for Google aside, no end user will invest serious money in advertising for an IDN without acquiring the ASCII equivalent.
Latins get good traffic by being look alike and from people looking for the ascii version (i can say 95% of latin traffic come from people looking for the ASCII website - 95% of the traffic to Sociétés.com are people looking societe.com), but this is a double edged sword - likewise, traffic to an idn can be lost to the ascii.
Some food for thought.