I'm in Quebec, and here we have a very modern grid. Much of that is to how well Hydro Quebec is run, providing some of the cheapest power to its citizens in all of North America, whist making billions in profit for the state.
Much of this profit comes from selling massive amounts of power the US Eastern states, which is why its long haul transmission lines are modern, high frequency, low power loss.
Some of that power comes from as far north as Hudson's Bay!
The other reason so much of the grid is modern, is from the ice storm at the turn of rhe century, which destroyed an incredible amount of the distribution network. Hydro Quebec took the rebuild as an opportunity, and modernized everything.
Point is, even with all of that, there is the need for more, more, more, as well as last mile stuff. Nimbyism isn't as big of a thing here, but it still exists.
Hydro Quebec is very green, and is building a variety of trial h2 infra. Generating H2 at the power source, and using pipes to send it through that massive network of local gasline distribution, does allow for distribution without the same power loss as sending power 2500km.
Even with high efficiency power lines, that's a long haul.
But the thing is, there should not be one solution! Frankly, long haul batteries should be prohibited in cars, we should have different solutions for different situations!
How inefficient is it to carry around 2000lb or more of batteries from long distance, when most people only need short runs?
Conversely for taxis, buses, and people who need range, h2 provides that without all that weight and battery waste.
And even better, short range battery cars are charged at home, or at office more often, and at lower power draws. Thus, having h2 and batteries means dual generation, and end point distribution methods.
We can scale with existing infra more easily.
Current ICE cars have propane, diesel, and gas. Why must there be "the true path!"? With more research, we may find h2 to be more efficient than batteries, and without all the weight and e-waste of batteries.
And this is why locales should build what infra works best. Not be forced into some cookie cutter solution.