Interesting, maybe not totally mainstream, but my understanding is that there are documentaries out there with titles like "Stranded" or "Dirty Coin" iirc, making the type of case in favour of Bitcoin which you describe. However, I find it interesting to reflect on the forthcoming Nimiq 2.0 PoS having an inherently much lower energy and hardware requirement to run a validator, and the potential for decentralisation implied by that.
Discussion
I think it’s a matter of time before you can buy a bitcoin powered water heater at Lowes.