Cutting consumption because the price went up doesn’t necessarily mean the difference in consumption is waste. If you keep increasing the cost of energy, eventually people are going to freeze to death in their homes because they won’t be able to afford the heat. That doesn’t mean the energy required to keep them alive was wasted; it just means they couldn’t afford it anymore.

Germany is heading into a recession because the high cost of energy is destroying their manufacturing sector. They aren’t just making the same amount of stuff with less energy; they’re making less stuff and becoming a poorer country.