…passes by too quickly the technological breakthrough postulated in it in its quest to say something both metaphorical, and mildly depressing, about human existence. A nanotool that can recreate anything else, while always being an inferior copy of the item that it’s reproducing? That’s an insanely useful thing to have. To put it in GURPS 5e terms, having that item means that you’re never going to be in a situation where you have ‘no equipment’ (-10 to tech skills, -5 to skills that need equipment, some rolls automatically not permitted). Instead, you’re always at the ‘improvised’ (-5/-2 to skill) level, and possibly you can even jolly your GM into letting it be -3/-1, because after all it really is a half-step up from stone knives and bearskins, right? And best of all: it’s small. Not much encumbrance there on your character sheet.
Yeah, I know. That wasn’t the real point of this webcomic. But, maybe it should have been, hey?