This isn't a codec, it's a group to do patent analysis and development for a future codec.

WRT hardware support, I agree, but it won't be available in the early life of any new codec so it's important that it also works well in software (accelerated by SIMD and the like). The power difference is less than you might think, I have some preliminary measurements here: https://people.xiph.org/~tdaede/power/