Obviously it is energy consuming but in todays world what is not... I think that should not necessarily be an argument against Bitcoin
For example China and Iceland has free cost of electricity we can mine 24 hour there. But in my country where electricity is expensive bitcoin mining would never be worth it. We always care about our electricity bills.
the problem is not free or pay, but too much electricity is bad for the environment? but the OP explained that we don't need to worry about the energy needed to use bitcoin? because they right, use of bitcoin in my opinion doesn't require a lot of energy..