How do all the combustion-powered engines prevent their shutdown? Well, they were useful, so we adapted our society to rely on them -- anyone who didn't was out

How do all the combustion-powered engines prevent their shutdown? Well, they were useful, so we adapted our society to rely on them -- anyone who didn't was outcompeted. Now we can't stop using them or the society falls apart. This is not necessarily the mechanism most people consider, but it's a simple counterexample to "anything with an off switch can't be a threat to humanity".