Ever heard of the bullshit asymmetry principle?
Anyways, to answer your question: High cost of mining in gold is what limits the supply. High cost of mining in a cryptocurrency is not needed to limit supply.
this is a bit backwards, high cost of mining is not needed, it's a consequence of demand in higher supply
analogy does hold: there is demand for gold which causes certain amount of mining which has environmental impact. there is demand for bitcoin which causes certain amount of mining which has environmental impact.
of course no analogy is perfect, bitcoin has another aspect with feedback loops to mining and demand - security. the more mining happens, the higher ledger security and the more valuable it is.
it's still completely misguided to think that bitcoin mining is some process done for no reason - it's integral part of what makes bitcoin valuable. and the more mining - the more valuable bitcoin is.
lastly, blaming energy consumers in environmental impact is wrong too, it's producers that use environmentally damaging means for energy production who should bear the blame.
This is an accident of history more than anything.
I think the distribution will look different once the monetary cost of Proof of Work starts to impact the Bitcoin ecosystem.