Fusion isn't the holy grail of energy

Excellent writeup.

I wish it was also adressing the Helion Energy approach, too (FRC plasma configuration, pulsed operation, extracting electric energy directly from the magnetic field), which I see as a possible "out" for fusion energy, but regard with extreme skepticism. The only good independent analysis on that that I know is some older ARPA-E report that indicates that Helion, after 6 prototype iterations, is at 8T for "final B" (magnetic flux density), but needs to get to 40T (which sounds a bit challenging to me).

I often encounter extreme optimism towards fusion ("it's only a matter of time/research progress") which is completely unjustifiable in my view.

I think it is absolutely worth it to continue with ITER and other fusion projects, but relying on fusion long-term for electrical power is insanely irresponsible/naive and premature in my view.