No, it's not just the energy consumption, the economic model isn't sound either. The upper ceiling on the supply isn't a feature, it's one of the reasons why you can't run an economy on Bitcoin.

Money so sound that it lost 30% of its value since November? I know that it's massively up long term but it's still a volatile asset measured against actual currencies; it doesn't function as money.

If it has a chance of succeeding in any way, it's to be an asset that people are convinced enough that it's a reliable investment similar to gold (gold's actual usefulness is a small fraction of the value so the comparison is close enough). So maybe people will keep buying Bitcoin for it's own sake and making dollars with it, who knows. But the "sound money" argument is bullshit.

> Bitcoiners care a lot about "sound money"

I doubt that most of them care. It's just that when you have a strong financial interest in something like Bitcoin going up in price, it's very easy to start inventing and believing all kinds of arguments that don't make sense.