The financial part of the article is why we’re seeing extensive adoption in rural locations, where people depend on propane, but not in urban areas which are hooked up to the methane distribution system. Getting universal adoption is going to require making electricity cheap and providing support for the appliance switch itself.
Yes!
You can obviously get rid of it and board it up, but even with no fire, you can make a feature of it if you tile it nicely.
Other fireplaces exist such as artificial electric ones, log fires and biofuel ones. Those all have their own emissions and benefits.
I live in the UK and did 1 a while back, we have candles in the space and a nice wooden mantelpiece. One thing I didn’t expect is how much warmer the house now is. We obviously can’t turn a fire on for heat, but when it’s not on, not having heat pouring out the chimney makes a big difference.