Yes, we have to dig things out of the ground to sustain our society. Oil, metals, minerals. It's not clean. We do what we can.
You can insert the "we should improve society" somewhat meme all you want, but it doesn't hide that fact that the people who complain the most are just as likely to reap the rewards of all the things they hate.
It's a lot like coal - we're at the point where its abundantly clear we need to get off coal for the health of the planet, and luckily many jurisdictions are doing so. Yes, we could "reap rewards" of coal, and if I happened to be living in an area that generated its power from coal I would be reaping this reward, but I would be valid in saying that we need to get off coal and switch to less polluting means of producing energy.
Bitumen is analogous. We can do better.