See, people should never care whats on a sticker and should focus on making a machine that works and performs up to expectations. This is the big problem with a lot of people as they make comments like how they want competition so the company they buy from is cheaper. That only hurts the other side and makes it harder for them to compete...(Not sure if you were joking or not btw, but I do see people say that and are serious).
That's the way I have been, always focus on performance per dollar though for a long time I was mostly sticking with NVidia because of that exact argument. Was not until my Dual GTX 580's felt a little sluggish for multi-monitor gaming that I re-evaluated my choice and changed them out for a pair of HD 6990's (Didn't keep the 580's long honestly, one of the few buying mistakes I feel I have made on the GPU side).
Well while I understand about being energy conscious, you have to also note that computers unless you run them under stress 24/7 are not going to raise your electricity bill except under extreme circumstances (Though by your description I am sure enegery is not cheap for you). Not to say I would not have bought GTX 980's like you just did if I was buying now (Best performance, low power, 4gb, what's not to love?). But to have energy drive you is not the best solution because its not something the high end normally focuses on. On that same note, if enegy is your primary concern it maybe best to also consider what is needed for your ideal gaming experience. Like for say if you were gaming at 1080p (I have no idea what your gaming at, random example) why even look at a GTX 980, you could buy something like a GTX 970 (Heck even a 960) and do just fine.
As for the CLC idea, I actually am with you hoping it can be adapted to custom cooling as that would be a vote in my book for best reference cooler ever. Hopefully that is the case as it would make a compelling argument even for me who is tieign my hands down from not buying any cards this generation
. But I do not agree that the CLC is them having a problem with their own product as there is supposed to be an air cooled version as well. To me it sounds like they are doing it strictly because of the extreme amounts of complaints coming from the 290's. They have listened and decided the only option to move up with liquid cooling as there are limits to what can be done with an air cooler without sacrifices.