Hydro is perfect for the person who lives in an apartment with limited growing space or a person looking to do plant research. The yields are amazing for the small foot print and the waste can be managed. The problem with hydro is there higher upfront costs, higher learning curve, increased complexity in the system, higher chance of virus and disease contamination, extra energy required to run the system, and the challenges with trying to upscale the system. For cannabis growers who only want a small discrete 10'x10' indoor garden, it's probably the best system out there aside from areoponics and aquaponics which imo is just a subset of hydroponics.
Now if your a home owner and you want a small garden in your backyard there are lots of other options besides hydro that will give you great results. If your area is small, go with raised beds, learn to grow vertical using cages and trellises, and use compost and mulches to keep fertilization & water usage down. And for around $40-$60 you can setup a timer and drip irrigation system.
For large farms, raised beds won't do. However, tilling the land destroys the soil, requiring you to inoculate your seeds & soil with fresh applications of beneficial microorganisms, which just adds to the expense and isn't needed if you avoid tilling in the first place.
So instead of tilling and using large amounts of fertilizers, you could instead grow a cover crop like wheat, clover, peas, etc during the winter. Come spring, the cover crop will take over and suppress the weeds. The farmer can then terminate the crop before it goes to seed, compost it, and apply it like a mulch. Since drip irrigation doesn't scale up well, and above ground sprinklers waste water an alternative irrigation system is needed. One possibility is to install rain barrels to capture water and run soaker hoses below your mulch. You could even go so far as to mix water-absorbing polymer crystals or add coconut coir into the soil for additional moisture retention.
Lots of ways to grow, and no one system works in every situation, but its nice to have options. I like organics a lot because of the savings and how its better for the environment. But yes, yield overall isn't as high as genetically modified crops being fed synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. But I'd gladly pay more for organics if only to support those who grow less for the sake of producing a better and much more safer crop.