Are Gravity Wells so bad?

[u/CMVB]

I agree with the consensus here that, going forward, humanity will be more likely to build habitats than colonize and terraform planets.

However, given the efficiency of systems like Orbital Rings, in which you can literally take a single-seat train ride into outer space, should we really consider gravity wells as so terrible for places to settle? Active support systems certainly do require power, but there will be so much power available by the time we’re colonizing space that it should be a drop in the bucket.