Not my experience. I found that a large excess of energy was a necessary buffer to protect the economy from the various resource crashes. A few mistakes and you can end up dangerously low on some resource, needing emergency buys that can last a while, energy can save you there. Relying on selling other material as a constant supply of energy comes with its own caveats too. Keep selling your food and excess alloys and their price will plummet, eventually you won't be able to get enough. You'll need breaks to allow their price to rise again. If you are losing energy during those breaks that can end up nasty. Not to mention the extra micromanagement added by relying on the market in the first place, rather than simply having the energy to meet your needs.
I always build generator districts after finishing up my mineral districts on a planet. It's farming districts that I put less priority in and even less to city districts. Only the very big planets I own end up urbanized.
