Not so sure your analogy works here. Aren't containment buildings meant to protect the area where the reactors are? I think the closer analogy would be saying the US needed to tap the breaks on the Manhattan Project because nuclear weapons are dangerous even though Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia are going full steam ahead during WW2 or the cold war with their nuclear weapons programs. The world would probably be very different it we had chosen the 'safer' path.
Seems to me like you understand it just fine. Or maybe you are underestimating the cost difference or people's ability/willingness to spend more on these items.
> A few people are being, in my view, harmful to everybody, including themselves, for no clear benefits to themselves, and for no gain for society.
This is where your argument keeps falling down for me. This may be your view, but I and many others find great benefit in Bitcoin. I dry my clothes on a clothesline, but don't feel that electric clothes dryers should be made illegal (not sure if you are arguing for this as OP does).
If you are interested in reading about the ways in which Bitcoin benefits different people around the world I recommend the writing of Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation.
Your argument seems to be that energy use that doesn't benefit you is wrong. I would be surprised if the idea of telling purchasers of energy what they can do with it, or computers what calculations they are allowed to make, will find much purchase in the United States.
PoW incentivizes renewable energy development. It's certainly not rolling it back.
It used to also incentivize GPU production, but as of today that has been diminished as well. Instead it is only current asset holders who reap the rewards.
Or you can memorize 12 words. Not saying this should be the common practice or that everyone should do it, but having the ability to store your wealth in your mind is useful.
Study of money is very scant in the modern education system. Looking down on people newly exposed and interested in economics is boorish. I also believe there are incentives ingrained in our society to keep some of this knowledge "secret", as you say.
Gave up their rights by "illegally" protesting, huh? So basically if you protest the government, and that government says your protest is illegal, you lose your rights. I don't see that being such a healthy path for a free society.