Don't see much wrong with the second part of your post; i was deviating & moving the goal post by posting the source i did. I couldn't really find a credible source that fusion reactors could never be cheaper than fission reactors other than my engineering instinct so i just gave u and throw what i had at you. (which was lame, i'm sorry)
But yeah to summarize my "instinct" on this matter; i'm not a big fan of laboratory fusion since after spending billions of $$$ & developing several dozen technologies implemented in hundreds of different experimental machines, over many decades, very little has been achieved in real results; this stuff has been 30 years away for over half a century; i'm sick of reading this kind of news
Regarding to lock heeds credibility; "Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, EMC2, Tri-Alpha Energy, General Fusion, MIT, and Lockheed Martin all have their own, independent research programs which are producing some very promising results." => "I would say that these places say they are closer than ITER but none of them are significantly closer. In fact I would place them all significantly behind. You also use the word results but results are not the forte of these programs, basic ideas and generous claims are." From; https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3q9tuj/how_close_are_we_to_be_able_to_use_nuclear_fusion/cwdhn6l/
But yeah the only fusion technology that worked the first time it was tried in 1952, and has since that time never failed to work = Ivy Mike. The only way i ever see fusion ever giving taxpayers Bang for the buck is in thermonuclear devices in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion.
Perhaps in a project pacer type of fashion; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_PACER
Mass producing very small nuclear bombs is obviously opens up its own can of worms.
All i know is that there are no easy answers when it comes to alternative energy sources; Anyone that says otherwise is probably trying to sell you crap or rob you through taxation.
Anyways, great discussion, you are smart & i would love to continue but i g2g; but i'm sure our paths will cross again around here :]