I would claim to know less than nothing about what's happening here, but to press a bit on the analogy -- aren't there workloads where clearly you're going to b

I would claim to know less than nothing about what's happening here, but to press a bit on the analogy -- aren't there workloads where clearly you're going to be more sure about what's happening? E.g. consider a bastion host proxying SSH connections into an environment. If you can observe the power meter on that laundry machine, you're much more likely to know what's using the power, no? (Especially so if the bastion isn't used flatly throughout the day).