They think it's real money because they can exchange it for illicit goods. Except... That's about the only thing they can exchange it for...
Discussion
If you are dumb and dont even know how to use it is with you
Monero beats bitcoin usage in white markets by far
Even then they still have to trust the darknet admin to hold their coins for them. So might as well move to Cashu and have full anonymity using Bitcoin and E-Cash. The admin won't know who has what, but can still get the commission for hosting the marketplace.
Monero bros are just in denial that there's more flexible tools that are faster than monero and more accessible.