As yourself said there is a demand, doesnt that increase its value? Besides the noble unspeaked reasons we have for bitcoin?
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Since every transaction in counterparty involves sending some assets from one address to another address using the bitcoin network, a tx fee is needed for the miner to add it to a block, success of counterparty will incur much more bitcoin transactions. And the users of the counterparty network will need to purchase bitcoin and put it to their addresses.

BTC to XCP is like TCP/IP to HTTP

1)
HTTP was built on top of the TCP/IP protocol
Counterparty was built on top of bitcoin network/protocol

2)
http uses TCP/IP as the transport layer to transfer information
counterparty uses the bitcoin network as transport layer to transfer information.

Actually the value in counterparty are a kind of information. The value in any blockchain is a kind of information that include UXTOs, tx hash, digital signatures.

3)
HTTP does not necessarily need to be on TCP/IP. And theoretically, it can be built on top of UDP

Counterparty does not necessarily need to be on bitcoin network.
It can switch to whatever other blockchain, e.g Litecoin / Dash / Doge / Bytecoin through proof of burn. That is, you burn your XCP, and you will receive proportional amt of xcp in the new network
Any financial assets on counterparty can be transferred to another blockchain as well

4)
TCP/IP's value is only in its functionality to transfer data, nothing else
TCP/IP consumes band width which is a major resource in the global communication network
HTTP's value depends on the amount of web appllications that will ever be built to faciliate real world businesses

Bitcoin's value can only represent the utility of a global cryptographic ledger, nothing else
XCP transactions consume bitcoin which represent the resource of a global secure ledger. Bitcoin's value is from hashing power, electricity, band width and etc
XCP's value depends on the amount of financial assets that will live on it and the amount of escrow that is needed for financial transaction on counterparty network and else

5)
http positively affect the usage/value of TCP/IP. More apps that make http calls, more usage of TCP/IP

counterparty positively affect the usage of bitcoin network and BTC value. More smart contracts on counterparty, more transactions on bitcoin network, more demand of bitcoin

6)
it is not feasible to build web apps directly on tcp/ip the transport layer, you have to build them on HTTP

it is not feasible to build smart contract, financial settlement directly on bitcoin network, you have to build in on counterparty
 
complex system are always in the hierarchical structure. In that sense, ethereum, rootstock both won't work

finally, bitcoin is the transport layer and counterparty is the application layer for a decentralized financial system