Ironically this thread contains a lot of people discussing their local experience with lawns, then other people from thousands of miles away in different climates saying "no you're wrong, my lawn is nothing like that".
The problems we have trying to maintain a monoculture!
I can totally see why people have a problem with huge, unused monoculture patches of grass in dry areas, but I can't understand why people think it's a universal problem.
Lawns are only a problem in areas where water is scarce. Sure, you can think of other problems with it that are "bad" for the environment, but so is literally every human activity. In my area lawns are heavily used and surrounded by flower beds, especially by families with kids, like mine.
Drought tolerant cultivars have been in development for awhile. They’re mainly targeted at golf courses and things like that but I’d expect to see them packaged for homes in the near future.
It’s really neat to see how they optimize certain grasses this way and how many years of breeding and selection it takes.
The problems we have trying to maintain a monoculture!