"No one is arguing that household solar replaces heavy industry, nor that it delivers a Western lifestyle overnight."

No, you were just ignoring it, assuming that Pakistan was a model for the third world when in fact its a model as to how to stay in the third world.

That's simply repeating the same mischaracterisation, mhaze.

//No, you were just ignoring it, assuming that Pakistan was a model for the third world when in fact its a model as to how to stay in the third world.//

Pakistan was not presented as a "model to emulate", but as evidence of a mechanism: when the unit cost of electricity falls low enough, electrification can begin bottom-up rather than waiting decades for capital-intensive grid projects.

Historically, household electrification, lighting, refrigeration, communications and small enterprise preceded heavy industry; they didn't prevent it. That sequencing is not controversial.

So the relevant question isn't whether Pakistan represents an end state, but whether early-stage electrification retards or accelerates development.

If you're claiming it retards it, explain the mechanism. Simply asserting "it keeps them poor" isn't an argument.