Why modern rivers would not bring paddle wheels back

Could paddle wheels become competitive again on modern rivers?

They still work, but refined screw propellers and waterjets are now more efficient, so returning to paddles would be a technological step backward.

Paddle wheels remained workable after they lost their historical advantage. Their earlier competitiveness came partly from being a mature, heavily refined system when screw propulsion was new. Screw propellers and waterjets then received generations of development, shifting the efficiency balance. Returning to paddles today would therefore surrender those accumulated gains even in the river environments that once favored them.