The main thing that's being enabled by "blockchain" is a way for mutually distrustful parties to agree on a timeline of events. That's it. But it has huge implications.
The trust factor requirement is removed from the physical infrastructure and operators.
For bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies, this is used for a ledger of value transactions.
Now we have an way to transfer ownership and value. What the internet did for information transfer, we now have for value transfer.
Ethereum generalizes this with a virtual machine that can run arbitrary computation and store arbitrary state.
A trustless global value transfer machine that requires no PII (which could be regulated, and added as a requirement in compliant applications, of course), central point of trust, or custodian of data. Where the security layer between the service/application/protocol and the end-user is abstracted away and taken care of by the Ethereum ecosystem.
In the phase we're in right now, a lot of applications are related to finance. There is both transformation of traditional finance[0], and the new sector of "defi" that IMO is here to stay and grow but is in the early half of a huge bubble that will burst hard).
That aside, this is enabling a new way to structure ownership, applications and anything between. If blockchain-based currencies and smart contract platforms end up as Orweillan tools of control, or liberating and improving our society, is mostly lot up to developers, teams, and users.
I hope more people get it.
But not not too many too soon, because the infrastructure wouldn't handle it. Eth2 improves on that by magnitudes, so this news is a crucial step.
[0]: Source: Working at a digital asset service provider with some bigger and more well-known financial institutions as clients, and friends in the industry.