If your chief concern is Echo value or min/maxing, there might be an argument there. However, I can’t help but feel that that sort of evaluation misses the point entirely. The heart of Fallen London is its stories, and the central value of anything in it is narrative: the stories it tells, and the stories it enables. Even something as mechanically dry as item conversion is a vehicle for exposition; the conversion text for Luminosity items and Wild Words are the first hints a new player often gets at the game’s deeper mysteries. If you want to judge something’s value here, the real question is, what does it tell you?
Looking at the Renown 10 items, which perforce are the least mechanically exciting, one may find plenty of narrative value. Almost all of them help color in the factions–a particularly important office, given that they can be found while you’re still half a Surfacer and trying to find your way around the place. Several (e.g. the Barrel and the Gazette subscription) are delightfully humorous, and the Amber Cello is evocative and beautiful. (It is my favorite of the Renown items, hands down.) The Renown 25 items start to play on with some deeper material, also (with the Chelatic Mitten and the Constant Cufflinks) dipping into Sunless Sea territory, things that don’t normally appear in Fallen London. Finally, at Renown 40 (by which time, in fairness, you’re probably starting to penetrate the deep mysteries of the game), you get things like the Frost Moth and the Thunderbolt and–my God, what are they doing to that soul!?–that open up privileged information, and also mark you as a serious explorer of the Neath.
(You know, I didn’t realize until I did that little summary how carefully FB arranged the Renown items with an eye to exposition. I guess it’s easy to miss when you were playing during the conversion.)
So what is the point of Renown items? To teach you about the setting. To amuse you. To make nods toward other bits of the game, its history, and its mysteries. To fuel role-playing, for those so inclined. Also, occasionally, to give you a very impressive Transport.
I should note, even for the most hardened min/maxer (assuming there are any around here), that Hallowmas has made a regular habit of upgrading Renown companions. The Rubbery Bellringer, Unassuming Judge, Chap on the Corner, and Unassuming Ex-Privateer Charter Clerk have all gotten makeovers (twice, in one case), and it’s entirely probable that next Hallowas will see it happen again. It is particularly useful for the collectors out there that one could upgrade, e.g., the Clerk, go get another one, and upgrade that one, too before Hallowmas was out. (This is probably why–well, one of several reasons why–they have not given the same treatment to the Frost Moth. It would be a much larger affair to collect 7 favours and then hop over to the Tomb-Colonies and return to London before the end.)