Well, um... I dunno how we got from talking about LENR as a desalinization technology to the sin of mankind, but as far as I can tell, you speak wisdom and I agree with you. LENR won’t be a panacea for society any more than the reasonably priced automobile was. But it WILL affect civilization as much or more than automobiles, so it makes sense to keep a sharp eye on it.
If one of these things will yield more energy than it took to put it together, then the celebration might begin.
Even before that it’s a plausible battery.
You’re probably thinking electrical plant. Hey if it can be stoked with this stuff at practical power levels... and it doesn’t need as much energy to make as it will yield... why not.
There’s still going to be the question of consumption of material. Can they take used fuel and make new good fuel out of it? Or does use mean it’s forever useless for the reaction now?