Why do you think it prevents doing anything at scale? I can't see anything other than unfounded belief in your logic here. There might be a case to say in such an artisan economy there would no longer be such a need for scale, as in no need for the economics of scale, if the root source of product comes with no limits and for no cost, we need not worry so much about cost and efficiency.
This actually is the case, concerning solar energy, but is being obscured by obstinate misperceptions that nothing comes for free.
I explained more in my own response to Douglas's article.