Yeah but it's just a matter of scale of that waste. Sending power over that much air for practical air travel would be something we could think about after we have all our energy problems totally solved, but transitioning our planes to electric is a more pressing concern than that for many reasons. Solar panels are great and getting better all the time, but it isn't nothing to produce them or we would already have all we need to stop using fossil fuels.

I'm hoping for batteries power-dense enough that weight concerns aren't far from liquid fuel, and a charging time similarly on par. Only for now are our batteries so "big and heavy".

Phones are a great application for power over air, very practical. But no matter how good it gets, even if it charges in your pocket from a hidden source under your feet as you walk down the sidewalk... I bet you want it to have a pretty good battery too.