Depends on the CAPEX and OPEX requirements. If it is cheap to do, it could be a solid win, but if the plant requires a lot of capital, it might be cheaper to just take the hit on efficiency
Yes the brine could just be diluted wih gray water to reduce the environnemental impact without the energy recovery of the osmotic plant and the capital can be invested in other renewable with better efficiency.
That being said it's a first so it's a pilot project needed to have feedback on a real plant in operation and not just back of the enveloppe calculations and suppositions. Sometime you need to just build the thing to encounter problems, issues or non-issues.
