If the constant scams in cryptocurrency space show anything it's that they trust each other way too much. "Trust less" is a sort of aesthetic pose more than anything
Closer. The user-agents running Bitcoin (nodes) are performing an algorithm that was purposely designed such that all such user-agents are mutually distrusting.
My second point also includes that people are willing to spend all of this energy for mining because of the Bitcoin value. I'm suggesting that people are in because they distrust the current currency system: The more they distrust other currency, the more Bitcoin they buy, the higher the energy costs as more participate, the more irrefutable the ledger, the more energy is spent...
So the more demand there is for irrefutability, the higher the energy costs.
Not necessary people in general. But people interested in crypto certainly don't trust each other.