Very true..but line loss is a real thing. 3% is the number I remember from when I was a "real" electrical engineer. The longer the distance, the more resistance, the more loss. I don't remember the distance factor for that 3%.

IMO we are in an interesting transition period. We are moving from central power production to a hybrid central/distributed power production (DPP) system. How we solve the problem of covering gaps in DPP is what people are trying to figure out, while at the same time DPP numbers are constantly changing.

I can see semi- to fully-autonomous power enclaves developing over the globe, starting in rich countries like Austria (where I live). 30 years ago driving through the country you would just see typical European villages. Nowadays, those village houses are nearly all covered in solar panels. As power storage options improve, I expect to see coops for power like grain coops from 100 years ago spring up as villages realize they can pool resources to be power independent, saving huge amounts of money over time.