I think a useful distinction is that chemical bonds can be used for things that require chemistry and molecules. In a world where our materials are produced sustainably, the embodied energy of hydrocarbons will be quite valuable. Perhaps this is more important for biomass use discussions though.

My other favorite example at the opposite end of the spectrum are LEDs and solar PV modules which are both limited by the same solid state physics and are very close to realizing the thermodynamic limit. (LEDs are around 100 lumens/W which works out to ~20%)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum...

Example: an NVIDIA H100 consumes ~700W to flip ~3e16 bits per second at around 373K. From Landauer's principle this only requires ~1.2e-4W! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landaue...

And it gets even smaller when you consider the thermodynamic limit! As a physicist I like to always keep the thermo limit in mind to contextualize how energy could be saved by technological advancement. Computing is my favorite example where we are at least six orders of magnitude from the limit.