By this token, macro has 0 value lolz.
Who cares? Look at the last 10 JBC winners. Saez, Duflo, Levin, Finkelstein, Chetty, Gentzkow, Fryer, Sannikov, Pathak. One theorist out of ten. That tells you the relative value placed on theory in today's economics.
Well now it has equal value to theory!
In the 1980s and 1990s, the best theorists could still make their name pursuing a technical agenda, developing and fleshing out the game theory concepts.
Theorists nowadays blossom late. Why? Unlike empirical work, the techniques are pretty sophisticated, and so early work of the future stars involves a mastery of the tools. The interesting questions come later.
I still expect the theorists to grab the majority of Nobel Prizes down the road, since the Nobel committee generally values the foundational work more than empirical findings.