[hcknwscommenter]

Direct capture cannot capture a neutron, as it is not a charged particle. Charged particles are relatively trivial to block with the lithium blanket. Not sure how direct capture could possible be more efficient. Do you have a reference that explains what you are talking about?

[someguyorother]

You run a fusion reaction that mainly produces charged particles, and then convert the KE of the charged particles directly into electricity. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion#Energy_captu... .

There's just the matter of getting the temperature up to 10x of an ordinary D-T fusion plasma. Non-equilibrium reactors like the polywell try to bypass the problem entirely, but (to my knowledge) it's very hard to maintain a non-thermal state.