You do, however, need semiconductors, mercury arc valves (1930s I think, and rather big/expensive/fragile), or motor-generators to turn the DC from PV back into AC, or to another voltage DC.

Running everything at ~110VDC was an option - that's what Edison wanted to do. However, you need your generation very close to your demand which just doesn't work once you start looking at dense cities and skyscrapers.

It also breaks down once people start wanting radios and other valve or transistor based electronics, until about the 80s when switch mode DC-DC converters start becoming an option.

It seems like you'd need an enormous amount of copper, which was in short supply at various times.