Another phrase, perhaps along the lines of "probability of bet" would be a much better term than "proof of work" given that the reason the energetic commitment of work matters at all is that it represents a finite unit of value that someone, somewhere, allocated to a given blockchain in the form of risk. The amount of underlying value at risk is actually unknown because nobody knows what the cost basis was of the electricity used to "purchase" it. But using proof of work to describe the mechanism of committing a bet to a blockchain is rather like calling the ante in a card game "proof of chip toss". It's technically correct but it describes a relatively incidental aspect of the incentive construction process.