The USO structure shows that buying ETF not necessarily reflects option prices due to contango. There is more than one ETF per asset, but liquidity may be more important than performance in some cases.
Occasionally it is useful to buy mining companies/EFT/MLP instead of buying the commodities. The mining companies typically have much higher volatility.
Also there are many alternative industries. For example, steel, helicopters, rare earth metals, tesla – are all connected to oil industry and serve it. You can buy the alternatives.