Just a couple of month's ago people were saying that mining's large energy usage is a GOOD thing, but now this subreddit is praising the Merge's huge drop in energy usage. Where is the consistency?

In recent history, there were many posts and comment's justifying crypto's high energy usage with the idea that it encourages adoption of renewable energy sources etc etc. This was not a minority position, with many posts and comments with hundreds, if not thousands, of upvotes. I was never a fan of this argument, but that's besides the point.

Now, the Merge is upon us and ETH's energy usage will dramatically drop. With this, many posts are claiming that this energy decrease is great. Noone, however, is suggesting that ETH's energy reduction is a BAD thing, as it will slow the adoption of renewable energy sources. This is odd, as it is surely a natural consequence of the previously cited argument.

Could it be that the "encouraging renewable sources" argument was nothing more than an excuse to rationalise crypto's energy consumption, rather than a true belief? To me, that's all this argument ever seemed.

It would be interesting to get people's opinion on this and whether ETH's energy reduction is good or bad.