Idk, “people who argue about different energy generation methods on the internet” isn’t exactly a representative sample of the general population.
I like talking about ITER because it’s a really clear example of how, most of the time, big discoveries and innovations don’t just magically happen cos one genius sat down and came up with a thing - with a few exceptions, science hasn’t worked like that for most of the last century - innovations happen because of the accumulation of effort by hundreds of people over years.
Viable fusion energy has been “about 10 years away” since the 70s, and that’s not because noone has been working on it, it’s because it’s hard, and it’s more work than one group could achieve in a whole career. It takes serious sustained investment on the scale that only governments can stomach - imagine if Musk had poured his billions into fusion research rather than lighting it on fire to try and make people like him - and there is very little chance that that investment will ever directly turn a profit, but indirectly the gains to be made for societies are gigantic.