1. A poor estimate is better than none at all. No matter how uncertain it is, there has to be some range where we can say with 95% confidence, BTC energy consumption falls within this range. We all understand that any estimate will be very uncertain because of the scale and complexity of mining.

2. The arguments youre responding to about BTC being a waste of energy etc. aren't being made in this post. He's just using energy to estimate leak rate, not to assign any moral value to it.