points are the representation of how much a user has helped.
however. it is unclear how much one point is. and thus how much a user has really helped.
generally, when people have a clear feedback of the results of what they do, they will be far more motivated, and so, probably have their computer running BOINC longer. I myself have two friends that don't really care about this because of that reason.
another example of when this happends: people get much more self-gratitude when they give a small amount of money to a welfare orginasation, than knowing that a part of their taxes actually goes to welfare, because they clearly see what happends with their money.

so i believe that if a vague concept like points, would be replaced with something more clearly, allthough i don't know the technical aspect of this form of computing, so can't say what it should be.
i reckon technical reasons are probably why it hasn't be done.

but maybe another idea is showing how much % of a certain project you have performed, so that you have a better image.

i'm not saying these specific ideas should be executed, but i am saying that there should be some more kind of clear reference to what you're doing.