Talking way outside of my understanding of POW, blockchain, etc, but what if POW was something with intrinsic value? Say for instance protein unfolding, physics

Talking way outside of my understanding of POW, blockchain, etc, but what if POW was something with intrinsic value? Say for instance protein unfolding, physics number crunching, weather prediction, etc. And as a result this became the value of the ledger. Surely the amount of energy consumed by this valuable POW would make it potentially worth it when the returns would benefit society, the environment, etc...