@AukeHoekstra Here's how I frame the question. This is the past: as long as emissions and pollution are free and clean energy technologies are expensive, the energy sector optimised around a heavily centralized, fossil-based system. 
@AukeHoekstra This is the future: clean energy is super-cheap, the sources of flexibility you list have scaled up and are cheap, and there is no longer a "moat" surrounding fossil fuels. It's game over, clean energy wins. But this future is not now, or next year; it might be 2030 or even 2050.
@AukeHoekstra And this is today. Now that we know about the costs of fossil fuel pollution and emissions, a more distributed and cleaner system would clearly have higher utility, but we are stuck at a "local optimum". Jumping costs money, waiting costs utility. So there are real tradeoffs.
