Since my wife bought Amazon kindle I was positively shocked with the e-paper screen and the best thing is that it doesn't produce fatigue on my eyes as lcd displays do. Your last paragraph was exactly on point, we need to cut the middleman by implementing ecological dogmas. The world that we live in is made to suck up all the energy (energy equals money) from the consumer, and once the consumer's energy is back up, it makes him use it almost immediately. That is the easiest way to describe today economy. We are writing history now, era of crypto self-sustainable world is here.
Yeah love the e-paper, reading on digital displays aren't the same after experiencing it :)
I dunno, many "experts" in the field equate computing proof-of-work with the establishment of trust. I think proof of stake makes much more sense personally..
Both Pos and PoW have it's pros and cons, but I share your opinion. Only natural way is to see what will develop afrer some time, and research everything. Decentralisation was the key idea when developing cryptocurrencies, but we will see if it is sustainable due to always having people with different agendas.