My perception has long reached the flipping point where sun-facing roof without any solar installed makes the house look like a house in bad maintenance.
I like this perspective and we should propagandize it in the lifestyle magazines.
I've long thought of them as a visible signifier of prosperity and cluefulness, but since they've become standard on new build they just fade into the background.
I've not seen solar-over-thatch yet. I wonder if that exists in the Highlands somewhere.
That's just how perception works. It's rarely fair. People who keep their car running perfectly fine for 20 years will appear like they don't care, people who return a young but worn out near-wreck every time the lease runs out will give the opposite impression. And don't get me started about fast fashion!
But it's more than that with residential solar: at least in places where with a heavy oversupply in real estate, "massive capital investment" is hardly a matching term. More like a drop in the ocean, given the amount of capital bound in the whole package.
Roads covered with cars are an egregious eyesore and yet everyone is thoroughly acclimated to them. The amount of land we allocate just for parking would be shocking if it weren't so normal.
Speaking of which, solar roofs for parking lots always seemed like a thing we should be doing everywhere. I'm sure it's not cheap to build the structure but it has the added benefit of protecting cars.