Edit based on Tim B's new hint:
>! The clues (including their answers) are:  
>! 1 Escorted by --> **WITH**  
>! 2 Grips --> **HOLDS**  
>! 3 Italian sequencer --> **FIBONACCI**  
>! 4a Decay --> **ROT**  
>! 4d Input --> **READ**  
>! 5 Not just a --> **THE**  
>! 6 Cipher reversed --> **DECODE**  
>! 7 DNA scrambled --> **AND**   
>! 8 Piano lever --> **KEY**  
>! 9 On a slant --> **DIAGONALLY**

The whole message then reads:  
>! **Decode with rot and read diagonally, Fibonacci holds the key**  

This means:  
>! Decoding the diagonal parts of the grids (xifsf, ku, wkh, ywzyh) with the corresponding numbers of the Fibonacci sequence (1,2,3,5) are numbers (3,4,5,6) of the Fibonacci sequence (these last numers as found by Tim earlier on).

And it leads to:  
>! xifsf (ROT 1) --> **where**  
>! ku (ROT 2) --> **is**  
>! wkh (ROT 3) --> **the**  
>! ywzym (ROT 5) --> **truth**  
>! So the solution is: **Where is the truth**  
>! Perhaps at this point the clue 3+4+5=6 needs to be used. Since the truth is in the grid with no. 6, we should add the Fibonacci numbers F(3)+F(4)+F(5)=1+2+3 = 6.. (this is assuming the Fibonacci sequence starts with a 0, otherwise we would have F(3)+F(4)+F(5)=2+3+5 = 10  

Previous answer:

I haven't made any real progress on this one, but I'll give you my two cents. Maybe someone else can make sense of it.

First of all:
>! The question is about "extracting the value" from the puzzle, implying that we're searching for a number here.  
>! The clue **3+4+5=6** seems to be supporting that view. I've tried plugging in values into the grid to match this equation, but there's no solution, so that's not the way to go.  
>! seventeen + two + one = twenty is the closest I could get, but seventeen and twenty don't line up correctly.  
>! Since OP suggests to start with the image, I also tried changing the link (https://i.sstatic.net/K6ckx.png) to https://i.sstatic.net/K345ckx.png, but no luck there.  

Then there's the numbers Tim found in the grids:
>! Maybe we should add those grids somehow, but I've tried this in lots of different ways and it doesn't work either. OP also changed one of the grids at some point to remove a red herring, so most likely the letters in these grids don't bear any further significance, other than the numbers inside of it. 

About the five clues:
>! Are they even the clues??  
>! They are capitalized weirdly, is EG IDI NC DNAP O perhaps a message? It's an anagram of ENCODING PAIN, but now I'm probably just seeing stuff that isn't really there...  
>! Could the Italian sequencer be Fibonacci?  
>! Second hint tells us that the clues to the puzzle can be found "in the end". So maybe in final letters of any of the words?