Yet my understanding is that to use Dash Platform you do need to pay in Dash Credits which are only purchasable with Dash... Maybe that's not true? If it is though, how is that not similar to using ETH as gas on Ethereum?
Is this a joke ? Your advocating Dash pivot to ethereum's monetary model when it's a bitcoin clone ? I explained the basis of Dash's valuation above, it's set in stone. Services are nice but they are an enhancer of that model, not a replacement for it.
If mining is considered environmentally destructive than this strategy will back-fire.
You should not have invested in a POW asset if that's a criteria - specially not one that started off as one and then changed its "mined". Hashrate is the currency of a trustless primary market and if it's found to be "environmental unfriendly" (which it isn't) then some other way will be found but it doesn't alter the core monetary properties of this coin.