There are many tradeoffs one makes taking any route. Electricity-wise? I'm not sure. We'll see. > ...just buying the coins directly? Realistically, there's ne

There are many tradeoffs one makes taking any route. Electricity-wise? I'm not sure. We'll see. > ...just buying the coins directly? Realistically, there's never such a thing such as "just buying coins". You need payment processor / security / refunds / authorization / ... There is, however, something close to "just mining coins". This is one of the fundamental reasons cryptocurrency is attractive in the first place.