The glaring exception to this is that we absolutely are all coming after your lawn, and that’s such a hot button issue for people.
on the flipside, the greater back half of my yard not near the house i encourage to be an ecosystem. If everyone on the block did so, then the entire middle of the block would be a continuous piece of nature. Front lawns create scattered pockets of nature at best and seem to cause a lot of friction.
I think of the Geese all around the industrial park near me, and how going into and out of your office on the sidewalk can become a problem if theres a mother goose around who thinks youre threatening her family
The farmer is filling up a tank or hopper with hundreds or thousands of pounds of chemicals that cost them a ton of money so they can't really afford to have it just sitting around. They know when they fertilize right before a rainstorm just how much money they lost. The feedback is pretty immediate. Some people would say this is sufficient to prevent problems, but we know that's not true. It discourages problems, but it doesn't prevent them.
Meanwhile your neighbor has a $10 container they bought last year and they'll need a new one next year even if they didn't use it, so who cares if I fertilize and forget to turn off the sprinklers? Hardly any discouragement at all. It's very open loop.
What's the alternative? without a lawn people will likely opt to concrete their property - which I guess would be better for water but kind of depressing