Skoltech researchers have found a way to produce hydrogen from natural gas with 45% efficiency right in the gas field by injecting steam and a catalyst into a well and adding oxygen to ignite the gas. Catalyst-assisted combustion produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, from which the lat...
That used to be my thinking, but there's a lot of natural gas ready to be exploited and we need hydrogen. Therefore, methods like the one described in the article as well as ex situmethane pyrolysis are worth investigating.
You forgot to quote the rest of that sentence. We need hydrogen, which is easy to get from natural gas, of which there is a lot. The right thing to do is figure out how to use it without emitting greenhouse gases. The problem is the same whether we're under the current mode of production or some hypothetical moneyless condition.