so far there's no better alternative compared to current bitcoin, proof of work is a necessity for the biggest crypto there is in the market i wouldn't expect things to change soon.
if we have 100 points of electricity in the world doesn't mean that 10 industries are are allowed to use 10 points each equally. Energy consumption and costs should be weighted on the technology that are available at the moment. There are worldwide spread technologies in both conventional (Visa/Mastercard) and crypto world (ETH) that have a way to do transaction in a faster way. It would be a nice trip for one time do a tour with an old vintage train but that doesn't mean everyone should you use in 2024, for multiple reasons, sustainability is one of them.
From a safety prospective considering the current market cap of ETH an attack could cost a lot more for ETH than BTC probably, as posted here:
https://unchainedcrypto.com/51-attacks-on-bitcoin-and-ethereum-impossible-coinmetrics/
Even though I thought that a deflationary asset as a currency for transaction was cool when I first heard about bitcoin, examples in the last 100 years of deflationary period have not been good. On the other hand to money printing that we witnessed during and also after COVID wasn't good either for example. Therefore I do not think it will ever be the main type of currency, but like gold nowadays, a store of value better than cash but less than stocks once it will reach a fair market evaluation.
Moreover, I do not think a lot of people (including me) really know how crypto really works. I cannot find really good data published recently but even among long term holders around me that is little knowledge on the differences between one crypto or another, how can you run a node, how much does it cost, so no one really cares about the impact.