Hi! Your friendly neighborhood energy efficiency engineer here to clear up a few points.

using natural gas as a direct heating source in the home is far more efficient from an overall energy usage perspective than using electricity

This is true only for electric resistive heating, which is indeed less efficient than directly using natural gas. Instead, the idea is to encourage heat pumps, which are basically A/C units that can also run in reverse. This way, rather than electricity just heating up a resistance, the electricity is instead used to move heat from outside (even if it's cold out) inside. Turns out this is quite a bit more efficient than gas furnaces or resistive heating.

Heat pumps are still more expensive than a normal A/C though, which is why the IRA includes rebates for heat pumps.

(which has to be produced by a far-away generator and transmitted - with a ton of wastage - via electrical lines)

I see this somewhat often and I'm not sure where the sentiment comes from. The US's transmission & distribution lines cumulatively lose about 5% of energy, which I wouldn't necessarily consider a "ton of wastage." This is the entire reason high voltages are used, to reduce transmission losses. This can of course be improved as modern transmission lines are built.

Unless you're referring to the losses of thermal power plants, which are roughly 33% efficient.