Yes, that's the tradeoff. High voltage for the long haul, low voltage locally is common.
There are computer equipment racks where distribution within the rack is at 12 VDC. These often have big busbars in the back, and a power supply in the base. Facebook's OpenRack started at 12VDC, but a later rev is at 48 VDC.
That's just within the rack; there's a power supply in the rack base running off something like 3-phase 220VAC. There are advantages to running off 3-phase power; there's always power available from at least one phase, and the capacitors needed to smooth DC are far smaller.
Telephone central offices have run the whole office at 48VDC for a century, with a big battery for backup power. Big bus bars carry that around the building. (Do telco offices still do that?)
Much industrial control gear runs at 24VDC. So do many military vehicles. It's a reasonable voltage to send a few meters, but not hundreds.
(The extreme case is ultra-high voltage DC power transmission, where power is sent thousands of kilometers at a million volts.)
For telco gear - at least the local distribution stuff in a box on the side of a road - a common setup is AC for normal operation, but 24VDC (or is it 48VDC?) between UPS and device. Because of the telco heritage those devices come with both AC and DC power inputs, and using both protects against power supply failures and allows the UPS to last a bit longer.
There are computer equipment racks where distribution within the rack is at 12 VDC. These often have big busbars in the back, and a power supply in the base. Facebook's OpenRack started at 12VDC, but a later rev is at 48 VDC. That's just within the rack; there's a power supply in the rack base running off something like 3-phase 220VAC. There are advantages to running off 3-phase power; there's always power available from at least one phase, and the capacitors needed to smooth DC are far smaller.
Telephone central offices have run the whole office at 48VDC for a century, with a big battery for backup power. Big bus bars carry that around the building. (Do telco offices still do that?)
Much industrial control gear runs at 24VDC. So do many military vehicles. It's a reasonable voltage to send a few meters, but not hundreds.
(The extreme case is ultra-high voltage DC power transmission, where power is sent thousands of kilometers at a million volts.)