Thermodynamics doesn't let you cheat sadly.
When evaluating these sorts of things you follow the energy consumption of each step and remove it from the initial pool of energy. Energy out over energy in will give you a way to compare methods for "goodness" regardless of complexity. Processes that have net negative energy are clearly in the "bad" category. Any positive is something.
Localized schemes like hydro pumping do quite well in this equation. It is distance schemes that suffer.
Distance schemes are hard because pushing electrons through a wire spends power just getting through the wire. Eventually its all gone. This is why you can't just cover 1/3 of Nevada with PV solar cells and power the grid from that one state.
So distance means transforming electricity into some other energy (chemical, potential, kinetic, thermal), moving it physically somewhere else (ideally without much loss) and then converting it back into electricity at the destination.
One of the more fanciful ideas I heard was train cars full of Tesla powerwall packs. If you've ever seen an operating coal fired power plant you may have seen the long line of coal cars in a train that pulls in each day. Once at the plant the cars are slowly pulled through the plant, dumping coal when they need to into the feed mechanism. Eventually a string of empty cars is on the other side to take back to be refilled. Imagine doing that with powerwalls. Cars pull up, connect electrically to the plant and start discharging. Once they are down to their "empty" level the car disconnects and moves on. I think it would be fascinating to watch.