Yes, it would probably have been better to have industrial evolution instead. Or are you arguing that all the countless deaths, maimings, child labor, 16-hour workdays, robber barons, black lung, radium jaws, and so on and so on were simply how it had to go? Or do you simply not care because all of that happened to other people?
Yeah, pretty much. A material emitting a previously unknown form of energy that turns out to be extremely harmful is really something you can only discover by trial and error. And what do you mean it's happening to other people? I am being exposed to all kinds of shit like PFAs and microplastics today. But it turns out that the technological progress outweighs all the environmental pollutants and accidents that it took to get here and we still live healthier and longer lives than we did before.