[abrambleninja]

Honeybees are actually not very good at pollinating plants; they take most of the pollen back to their hive instead of spreading it between plants. Furthermore, they often outcompete (non-honey producing) indigenous bees that are actually good at pollinating plants.

[cryptonector]

Bees do take most of the pollen back, but flowers don't need most of the pollen anyways. As with most species of sexually-reproducing lifeforms, the males produce much much more sperm than is actually needed for the reproductive act, and they do this precisely because so much sperm will be lost in the process. In other words: flowers account for the loss of pollen to pollinators. Flowers also make nectar to reward pollinators -- nectar production is otherwise pointless for flowers, and yet they put serious energetic effort into producing a pointless product.

You did imply something about honeybees being non-native in many areas, thus like invasive species. To be specific, honeybees have not been native to the Americas for millions of years.

[kyleyeats]

This comment captures the actual efficiency of the bee. The article measures it by time-per-plant.