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The doomsayer who got it right might find that the credit got snatched away from him by someone more charismatic. I've got to imagine that would be frustrating.
Antibiotics would be of great value, for a time. As you noted, they would run out. Medicine that we take for granted might become totally unavailable. You would need to relearn some older medicine, herbal remedies, for one example. And mercury. Yes, mercury. Nasty stuff, but it was used for fighting infection until better medicines came along. In our post-apocalyptic world, we might have to resort to mercury to treat infection, even with the toxic effects.
There would be so much to re-learn, we would have to learn to do what our great-great-great grandparents did. Working with metal would be of great value. The person who blacksmiths at a hobby would now have a very important job. Extracting metal from ore would be useful, but that could wait to be relearned, there would be plenty of scrap metal.
Now, you often have in post-apocalyptic fiction the bands of raiders, but they can only exist if there is something to raid. They are dependent on these communities having enough production that there is something to steal. Sooner or later, some of these raiders are going to settle down, and instead of raiding, offer protection, in exchange for feudal powers. It might be better to have a lord who takes some than raiders who take it all.
In the long run, knowledge is what is really needed. In the very short term, you just need to stay alive, the canned good economy can get you through the initial chaos. But you have to get through that to a state where you can provide for the basics, making your own food, clothing and shelter. If you can get through that immediate stage, you can use the knowledge you have saved to rebuild more than just the basic needs.
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