Principally that in a society where slaves are cheap but firewood or coal are expensive, steam engines aren't a priority

A tiger, in Africa?

the generator causes parasitic drag when under load from electrical usage. More efficient headlamps > lower current > less generator drag > same speed with accelerator under less pressure > improved fuel economy

or blow out the CCD in the speed camera

Electrical efficiency in cars matters. I keep detailed brim-to-brim fuel records going back years for my car. Over the last 18 months as LED aftermarket technology improved I have changed all bulbs bar the main and dipped-beam headlamps and some inaccessible panel backlights over to LED. I have seen a detectable improvement in fuel economy (about 1.5%) from knocking barely 50 watts off the power load. I am pretty sure it starts better too, as the battery is in an improved state of charge perhaps.

If you're stupid enough to pay $600 for an unproven first generation product you deserve everything you get

Thats just bad design or outdated equipment (newsflash - trolleybuses last 50 years as unlike a diesel bus they dont shake themselves to pieces). It would be technically trivial to have the trolleypoles auto align themselves and even switch wires while moving.

" Any time the driver needs to make a 90 degree turn he has to get out of the bus and manually switch lines. Any time the driver needs to make a 90 degree turn he has to get out of the bus and manually switch lines."

it should be trivial to equip the trolley poles with servo motors and optical sensors so they drop as the bus pulls away from the wires and raise again when they are under another set of wires. With accurate enough sensors and actuators this could be done at cruise speed

You say that, but the service life of a battery is probably a lot less than the service life of a power line for a sliding contact... as well as the replacement cost being higher and the technology level being higher, which causes other issues...

For what its worth the theory about it being a jet contrail seen end-on appearing to be a vertical launch column (easy viewpoint for the helicopter, never seen from the ground) is now starting to convince me