I agree with the conclusions. Extraction and use of energy at a bigger scale is certainly part of the picture, but mastering details at small scale is also important. I have another example in mind. Before fire, for millions of years, human/​hominin technology was almost only represented by wood sticks and stone choppers. All this time, progress was about mastering very subtle movements of hands to craft slightly better choppers and sticks, and about noticing subtle nuances in stone and wood to pick better raw material. It is true that the point of all this was in the end to extract more energy from the environment, but the focus was on subtle details, small scale rather than big scale.
I agree with the conclusions. Extraction and use of energy at a bigger scale is certainly part of the picture, but mastering details at small scale is also important. I have another example in mind. Before fire, for millions of years, human/​hominin technology was almost only represented by wood sticks and stone choppers. All this time, progress was about mastering very subtle movements of hands to craft slightly better choppers and sticks, and about noticing subtle nuances in stone and wood to pick better raw material. It is true that the point of all this was in the end to extract more energy from the environment, but the focus was on subtle details, small scale rather than big scale.