The nuclear stockpile bit is kind of true, although it's sort of true, HEDP systems are the only way in a controlled setting to create nuclear level conditions without setting off a nuke. That said, NIF at least from the energy perspective just like ITER was just to push the research forward than it was to produce break-even fusion in 10 years. If you really want that you'll need gobs of money, probably even beyond the level of things like the LHC. The reason we don't have fusion in either field (MCF or ICF) is because we don't fund it to that level.
EDIT: on funding, this[0] image shows what is neccessary and the level we actually funded. It's been around for a while but it may prove informative for the uninitiated.
I get the point the graph’s authors are making, but I wonder how those projections (made in the 70s) would hold up today, knowing what we know about the engineering challenges for each fusion approach.
In other words, I’d love to see a 2021 recreation of that graph.
EDIT: on funding, this[0] image shows what is neccessary and the level we actually funded. It's been around for a while but it may prove informative for the uninitiated.
[0]https://i.imgur.com/3vYLQmm.png