I do not agree with that reasoning as to WHY the boy made the choice.

The boy made the choice based purely on what he saw as useful. That is pretty much how all choices are made, they are "what is most useful to me right now or in the future."

Money was not useful to him because he doesn't understand that other people will accept it for toys, or Oreos. It doesn't seem to have any usefulness when looking at it. Any alien (assuming a compatible biology), or person from an ancient era, who had no idea of how our money system worked, would also almost certainly choose the Oreos.

Until you have been brainwashed to believe it has usefulness, there is no obvious reason, by looking at Federal Reserve notes, to think it does. It requires that brainwashing, by the system, or agents of the system (usually unwitting parents who are themselves brainwashed) in order to "understand its value".

You speak as though you have broken free from the matrix

I understand how it was constructed, and in that way I do have some level of "breaking free," though I am still stuck inside of it, so not really. However, understanding how it is constructed is kinda a big deal. The way out is if everyone understands that information, so yes, I wish to share that information with everyone.

I'm not just speaking out of my ass here. I've done tremendous amounts of research into this. If you click on the link above, I show quite clearly how there is a single corporation in the world, and a single body of people that run it. It is a comprehensive report of my investigation, I invite you to read it. I haven't yet gotten to the monetary system in that report, though I have written most of it. That section won't be released for a little bit, because I am doing it in sections, and the section on banking, money, and taxes is the second to the last (ninth out of ten). I am currently finishing up the next part (section 6), which elaborates how the school, medical, and science systems were constructed, who constructed them (the same people that created and run the single corporation) and the frauds contained within them to create false beliefs. Hopefully that section will come out soon. I'm really close to done.

nobody has offered up an alternative that would avoid a collapse of the system AND is not basically fiat currency with a fresh coat of paint

That is not entirely true. A system can easily be created if people have knowledge of the system as it currently exists and the frauds contained within. For an example of such a system, if there were not fiat currency (demanded through taxation), and numerous natural currencies were used in a pseudo-barter system, then a free market could exist. I suggest a truly free market is the only possible solution, coupled with an understanding of the frauds that have been perpetrated previously.

What would such a free market "pseudo-barter" system look like? It could look something like all stocks being tied to NFTs and all the different stocks used as currency (intermediary of exchange). Numerous metals (not just gold or silver) or precious stones, etc. could also be used as easy exchange if NFTs were tied directly to specific quantities of the metals or the stones themselves, held in easily accessible vaults. Art, land, collectibles, or other persistent assets can also be tied to NFTs. Then exchanges for all goods could be handled by using these multiple useful real assets that are tied to NFTs in a decentralized NFT market place.

Of course making a case for why this would be advantageous requires tremendous understanding of the current system, and how it was created. I'm working on getting that information out there in a formal way that is sufficiently comprehensive (not random debates without evidence on GAW). Others are working on it. I think one of the main purposes of the GA is exactly to show that information, so that people will be willing to adopt such a decentralized free market, based on NFT technology.