What would a viable alternative be? You can’t just remove one of those roles and still expect the process to work. While you may view the salesman as a useless addition to the project, who are people going to buy solar from? It’s a necessary role and while I agree with most of your points, that’s just the nature of buying anything that costs $5,000+. You’ll encounter the exact same thing buying grills, cars, houses, RVs, etc.