While Tesla was researching wireless electricity, he was being supported by JP Morgan. Morgan had an interest in what was then a monopoly on copper. That monopoly wanted their copper wires to rule the world, not free wireless power. Tesla's vision of helping humanity didn't fit into the designs of a monopoly, so Morgan made sure Tesla's research went nowhere.
As Morgan said, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" Tesla's mistake, as brilliant as he was, was his inability or unwillingness to see how the Dogs of Money keep all the good scraps for themselves. I know many brilliant people today with the same difficulty.
I see the same with wireless Internet. Every wifi device should be programmed to contribute to ad-hoc networks for eventual near-universal free access, but ISPs would never stand for it.
As nanotech increases in dominance, perhaps someday we can just make our own wireless ad hoc hardware as you describe. As the overall push is toward decentralized services and utilities, hardware is already starting to mirror reality, slow as it may be.
So where is this global wireless electricity transfer technology, after so many decades? Are copper wire producers still killing this technology, every time it shows up? Or was it only Tesla, that could invent this, and we lost this technology forever, because nobody is as brilliant, as Tesla?
I accept Tesla was genius, but even he could have been wrong a few times in his life. Some of his unfinished inventions to this day sounds impossible, and we certainly have much more knowledge about physics, than he had.
I don't think a few monopolies can stop progress, if the invention is really great.
As Morgan said, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?" Tesla's mistake, as brilliant as he was, was his inability or unwillingness to see how the Dogs of Money keep all the good scraps for themselves. I know many brilliant people today with the same difficulty.