>Efficiency has a huge impact on the cost/economics

Not in the way that you think, no. For all intents and purposes, we have limitless energy. The problem was never that we don't have enough capacity, because we can scale capacity as much as we want. The only thing that is required is that energy generation (i.e. $/kWh) is cheap enough, and this seems feasible with solar and wind and maybe fission and later one fusion or other sources.

>you're comparing apples to oranges

You are the one saying, "just attach a transmission line to it" or "just put a battery in it", without thinking of all the cases where this is just not possible.

Nobody is arguing that you should start powering your toaster with hydrogen. You all are attacking a strawman, it seems.