My concern is more so that this project will burn up real resources and be abandoned.

You’re highlighting how subjective things can be and I don’t disagree.

What isn’t subjective is the generations of the 1900s are the first to leave behind an existential threat driven by wasteful economic choices and they seem to be indifferent to doing so just to have fun.

Myself and lot of other software engineers I have worked with feel our jobs are meaningless; the future won’t care about these technologies. They’re hardly regenerative medicine or something so life changing daily life itself is improved forever like indoor plumbing and electricity.

But we feel captured by nostalgia for this work and form of economics, and apathy for a whole lot of people who will be dead before climate change is real problem

Some people grow gardens. Some rebuild cars. Others 3D print things. Others yet enjoy woodworking. One the grand features of our current society is you're not working 14 hour days, seven days a week in a factory. Without a doubt, there are those working multiple jobs and still struggling to make ends meet. But, fortunately, many are able to work a single job and live a relatively comfortable life. Those that can often have hobbies. It helps them unwind and maybe even enjoy life a little since otherwise so much of it is spent working or sleeping. It's downtime and largely considered positive for mental health and, consequently, one's ability to contribute to society.

Most people aren't solving deep societal needs in their free time. If you want to limit it to software, most of us have jobs that hardly improve society or the planet. Most open source code isn't advancing society. What I don't understand is why you've singled out the participants of this particular project for your ire.

I don't know any of the individuals involved personally. My guess is they're not the ones that built physical products with PFCs, ran coal-powered factories and operated strip mining operations, designed nuclear weaponry, or even fly personal jets. I'd hazard to say your average front-end developer chugging through batteries with inefficient frameworks is doing more harm than this project.

If your aim is to clean up the tech industry, I think that's laudable. I believe tech people have for the most part shirked their own contribution to our carbon footprint or other societal needs. But, I think you'll find there are much bigger targets actively doing harm (or certainly not helping things) regularly because it's profitable and/or convenient.