I agree with you completely about the current moment in Solarpunk. There is still a lot of free intellectual energy without too many boundaries or guardrails.
You mentioning this metaphor reminds me of reading Stefan Zweig’s “The World of Yesterday.” it is an achingly beautiful memoir of the author growing up in Vienna at end of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. It is full of deep painful nostalgia for the exciting world that had been lost. Recommend it if you ever pick it up.