The trend of people paving over their front gardens for car parking is causing a lot of flooding problems in the UK (because water runs straight off concrete, and isn't absorbed). It also makes the general environment much less pleasant and human if everything surrounding roads is paved as far as the eye can see, rather than filled with gardens, whether they're wild or highly tended. You end up with these grim concrete tunnels of development where no one wants to spend their time. That in turn damages pedestrian culture, and the health and social benefits which go with it.
In places where grass is hard to grow (Southwestern US) you see a lot of rock varieties and other materials that they substitute for grass and it looks great.
Just Google, "las vegas yards" and look at the image search.
The last place I lived, my neighbor was tired of his grass in his bakyard (about a 1/4 acre) so he created a huge concrete terrace in his back yard, along with a large rubber hard court for basketball and other activities for his and the neighborhood kids. He still kept his small front yard grass, but the entire backyard was now completely utilitarian.
Not sure where the last place you lived was, but I hope that if it were the desert, that there's some sort of aesthetically pleasing option that exists between a water hungry green grass lawn, and an asphalt or impervious concrete surface. Even if it's not the desert, permeable paving sounds like a win-win solution for aesthetics, functionality, and environmental impact.
Either way, it looked really nice and had me thinking about the maintenance and costs of my yard.
Seriously, lawns, like other parts of gardens, are something that people do for hobby - they like the work. Yes, it is somewhat contradictory that then people also want to avoid the chores of mowing. A rock garden may be better but anything will need maintenance work to look neat.
You can have a space filled with vegetables, fruits, shrubs etc.
I don't water my grass, and it isn't as pretty as some people's yards; but it is perfectly fine for playing in; and looks decent enough.
The whole "sprinkler systems are bad" argument doesn't hold much water in suburban NY.
Isn't that the entire point of my post? That different people value things differently? You may see it as "little return", but other people may not.
There are environmental issues with lawns in some locations. I don't suggest having a lawn in the desert. There are a ton of areas throughout the US where having a lawn is just fine, and is environmentally neutral.
Also, you make it sound like the government is paying for people to cut their yards. People do it themselves out of their own free will.
In many places in the US, you are legally required to keep your lawn below a certain height, and not just in HOA neighborhoods, it is often enforced by the city.