It's much different to be burning wood when you have the resources to make handling wood easier, or when you're doing it as option to supplement heat. For example, as I split or it gets delivered, I stack it in IBC totes to sit around and season. I then move those with a tractor so they're right next to an outdoor wood boiler. So I basically touch each piece twice. Or I've got a few friends that get it all delivered, stack their own big wood piles, then move it to a smaller thing to carry it indoors, but only to supplement central heat which they keep lower.

Whereas when you're doing it out of necessity, and trying to conserve even then, there is just so much more human effort that gets used and viewing it in terms of societal collapse, or at the very least poverty, makes sense. A good litmus test: what kind of vehicles are people picking the wood from wood banks with? If there are a bunch of people loading their car trunks and whatnot, it's hard to argue it's a lifestyle choice rather than bare necessity. If the same volunteers are delivering truckbeds (and stacking them) to needy older people who had burnt wood their entire life but can't manage it now, that's different.