This is from memory, and I can't find the sources - but at one point I read that some company developed some new pesticides for lawns and as a side effect, dandelions were killed. Which meant the company did a PR campaign to re-brand dandelions as weeds... and here we are.
My HOA charges $38 fine per dandelion. They send me a picture with all dandelions circled and counted along with the violation notice.
That's a shame since dandelions aren't actually harmful to lawns.
Maybe it's growing up with Bloom County comic books, but dandelions to me are even beautiful and joyful
Also, they're edible.
My friend makes a sort of artistic twine from the stems.
For some odd reason that has made me much happier to see a lawn full of dandelion flowers