From the technical whitepaper:

The EOS.IO software allows each account to consume a percentage of the available capacity proportional to the amount of tokens held in a 3-day staking contract. For example, if a blockchain based on the EOS.IO software is launched and if an account holds 1% of the total tokens distributable pursuant to that blockchain, then that account has the potential to utilize 1% of the state storage capacity.

So basically if you build an application, you get allocated x% of bandwidth, storage, and CPU power based on how many of the total EOS tokens you own.

Also in the technical whitepaper:

If a blockchain is launched using the EOS.IO software and tokens are held by a holder who may not have an immediate need to consume all or part of the available bandwidth, such holder can choose to give or rent the unconsumed bandwidth to others

So it sounds like they are including the part you mentioned to explain that that is not the purpose of the tokens