Just curious, how many data centers are being built in the immediate vicinity of the Musk, Bezos, or Ellison mansions? When middle class people oppose a big project nearby that ruins their property values and standard of living, they're "NIMBY", when elite oligarchs do the same, they're entitled to it.
The power plant and pipeline is a bad analogy. We need electricity and gas. We were doing just fine without cryptocurrency speculation, and there's no need for the rest of us to foot the electric and water bill for someone else's expensive playthings.
Yet people want the internet but whine if it is near them.