Why not? You say that with some authority, as if it's well known that this option doesn't exist. Why, then, do all the delivery companies give you the mechanism to waive the signature?

Sure you can. Many offer this option officially. For example, when I've ordered iPhones from Apple, they let me "pre-sign" online before delivery, which means the delivery person will drop it off if I'm not home.

Of course, the tradeoff is that if your package gets stolen, they're no longer responsible for it, which is why I've never actually done this.

Absolutely. If I were ordering bigger ticket items, you can be sure I'd tell them "I want to pick it up at the shipping office".

But in my case/story, it was $5 set of PCBs I had fabricated. Shipping was $20 for what amounted to an ePacket. I took the chance of having someone steal them (unlikely) to tell them to just drop it off at my dorrstep (in reality, a screened in porch).

Yeah, it can be totally reasonable to waive the signature in exchange for assuming liability. Depends on where you live, what you ordered, how you feel that day....

I've done it a lot but I'd be given pause for something worth a thousand bucks. But like, I'm not taking time off of work to sign for a PlayStation game.

Some carriers offer that option but it usually seems to waive the (limited) liability they would have had for stolen packages.