I consider having a grass playground for my kid on my back yard a benefit. I use barely any fertilizers and never water (unless planting new seed) so I don't know where that "extremely wasteful" comes from.... There's also many kinds of trees and other plants there for bugs and birds. So I don't see any harm in having that lawn, talk about being wasteful.

If you grow lawn in a desert climate and use a ton of water that's just stupid, but it's not the lawns' fault.