The article does not mainly focus on whether the belief in crystals’ healing powers is bad. It is mostly about the mining operations that bring the crystals out of the ground to begin with, and how a surge in demand for them is driving that mining.

It is that bad. The claims made about healing crystals compete with actual science and medicine, and to a naive observer, magic woo-woo crystals that can heal anything will always seem like a superior alternative to expensive, complicated and possibly painful medical treatment. And that's assuming that someone hasn't also been led astray by anti-vaxxers, to think mainstream medicine is a fraud, and the crystals are the only thing that works.

There's nothing good about encouraging the delusions of people who can't tell the difference between the real world and faerie tales. That it gives them "comfort" is irrelevant when it's false comfort.

Yeah the 60% of Americans believing in pseudoscience is somewhat concerning, but I don’t see a problem with people buying them if thats what they’re into. And the injustice of mine workers not seeing their fair share is a classic issue of resource extraction from poor countries. I imagine they’d rather have the option to dig than not.

It’s better than bleach enemas or even antivaxers, that’s true. It’s still a scam though, about the same level as homeopathy (that’s slightly worse because people use it to replace real medicine)

Yes, and most of the people who don't buy crystals are still eager to damage health and wallet by overeating.