The scaling is non-linear, which is exactly why ignition is important. By showing that fusion heat is actually leading to more fusion reactions, to get double t

The scaling is non-linear, which is exactly why ignition is important. By showing that fusion heat is actually leading to more fusion reactions, to get double the amount of energy out of each shot, they won't have to double the amount of laser light. In other words, higher gain should be relatively straightforward scaling of the system. (Also, the laser inefficiency is a complete red herring as they just used plain old flash lamp pumped lasers, not the much more efficient lasers we could have used and which are available now, with efficiencies about 10-20 times that of those used.) They achieved a 1.5x gain. To get useful electricity out (without heroic efforts) will require a gain of 20-50.