Mind: I'm not the person running the local model.
but if there are dramatically more efficient tools that cover the same needs, you could be way more efficient (less wasteful) than you are
I did say that the efficiency would be a different question neither of us can answer in this case, but I fully agree with you. I merely pointed out that a local model wouldn't be a permanent waste of electricity.
occupying (wasting) space
That's relative to how much space you have. I also have games on my disk that I haven't played in a while, so they're more or less wasted space. But they're not particularly large, so I can spare a few GB for them, and if I do want to play them, I can jump in spontaneously.