Totally Agree with you on cost effectiveness, almost ALL the alternative energy sources are a boondoggle, with payback vs investment exceeding the nominal expected lifetime of the Equipment, then tack on the high cost of installation if you are tying into the grid, it just doesn't cut it.
99% of the "success" stories we hear about have huge govt subsidies to make the numbers work.

That said, on a personal level, and like I will outline in coming posts, the key is having options that you have invested in. Like your hurricane setup that supports SOME loads but not something you can totally live off of. Alternatively, taking SOME of the expensive or little household loads off grid such as yard lighting, entertainment electronics, interior lighting and moving them to something like the tesla powerwall could reduce your bills. Note I said LIKE a powerwall, you could get a refurb EV battery on Ebay for less and hang an inverter and PV on that for a lot less IMHO.

buying "used" but still good PV panels from those discouraged folks who are cashing it out could lower costs, mix and match just to get watts flowing kinda deal, can work too.

Not sure what gridseed orbs are will have to look them up, but a decent Pole alternative could be a Chainlink fence top-rail, can get at fencing places and home depot from 6' to 48' lengths, they have a thicker wall to support the fence. and do the flag pole thing, 2 posts on either side of your pole, with a bottom bolt "hinge" and one or two higher bolts to lock it in place, can make it EZ to erect. if you go high guy it and with anchors and tension turnbuckles... I like to goop outdoor silicone on any nuts etc that I want to move in the future, the silicone protects from rust, and is easily peeled off when you want to unscrew the bolt...

it's like heating systems up north here. I see people taking out perfectly good heating systems because that last winter fuel prices went thru the roof. When you actually should put a second system that uses a different fuel, and it's fuel tanks, that way you have options for heat and consume the fuel you have or when one or the other is cheap. IE OIL & Propane.
Mix a woodstove in there and a cord or two of wood, and you have three alternatives to get ya thru the winter without breaking the bank, it's rare that over the course of a year or two that ALL the fuel is sky-high in cost.

That's my thinking about solar, Wind, generators, and human/animal powered generators feeding a bank of batteries that support SOME or emergency or essential household loads, it's all about the OPTIONS. !

it's when they try to impose ONE or the other as a monopoly and on a collective town, state, region, level that the alternatives break down.
The last thing they want is the individual to have their own options and choices about it, and that is exactly what it called for. Individual solutions.

If they were serious about a national program, research into Fusion on a NASA space program to the moon- scale could solve it, then it could be scaled from massive to household... voila energy crisis solved.
If we can go to the moon/mars there is no reason why we can't solve fusion !

this thread should be a post in itself LOL