Why isn't screensaver use discouraged by operating system UIs?

Question

Why not encourage users to turn off the display instead of using a screensaver to save energy? Wouldn't that be better for the environment?

solardev · Accepted Answer

Don't modern operating systems turn off the screen after X period of inactivity by default? And the screensaver kicks in a bit before that? I may be wrong...
But turning the screen off/on takes a few seconds and is annoying if it accidentally happens while you're reading or watching something. A screensaver is a good visual cue that can be easily reversed by shaking the mouse.
Ultimately users can set them to whatever they want. What's the problem? There's always a trade-off between convenience and energy savings. Turning the display off still takes a few seconds, so does recovering from sleep or hibernation.

frankjr · Answer

Because turning on the display often takes a few seconds and includes graphics glitches (modeset). Turning off a screensaver is instantaneous.

PaulHoule · Answer

Isn't that usually what happens (display turns off after N minutes) in 2024?I remember doing work on a Sun SPARC workstation that was on a professor's desk that became terribly slow when the screensaver kicked in.