> A reasonable question, and one not terribly often asked, is "What is the point of the economy, growth, etc?"

This is asked all the time. Google "economy growth reddit" and you'll see a bunch of posts questioning why it's important.

> I deal with it regularly, since my office is a standalone, off grid power system. I just use less energy, by an order of magnitude or so, in the winter - and I bundle up out here.

I mean, yes, on margin for a single person, this reduces overall energy consumption. However, cities are more energy-efficient per capita.

Take a look at the energy expenditure per-capita states by state, and you'll see that the states with the smallest energy expenditure per-capita generally have the largest cities, and the ones with the most energy expenditure are rural states: https://www.eia.gov/state/seds/data.php?incfile=/state/seds/....