> I do think it's fair to dismiss the aesthetic argument, because like so many other things in this thread, it's this dangling concern with an open unquantified

> I do think it's fair to dismiss the aesthetic argument, because like so many other things in this thread, it's this dangling concern with an open unquantified implication for how significant it's supposed to be. And this is where the fault in your argument lies. You present a perfectly reasonable, logical argument, that is more or less all correct. What your argument fails to account for is the human element -- humans aren't perfectly reasonable, logical beings. They're soft, squishy and have opinions that they hold despite being logically nonsensical. By dismissing the aesthetic argument, you're dismissing a lot of the human element. Let's put it this way -- you're not getting permits to build a wind or solar farm if the people you have to get the permit from don't want you to build that wind or solar farm because they think it's ugly. You're not likely to convince them otherwise unless you actually address the aesthetics.