Lawns used to be a status symbol. Now technology has made them cheap, yet we still maintain them.
French and English Aristocrats in the 18th Century created the concept of a lawn. The entire point of having a neat lawn was to flaunt how you could afford to have such an extravagant time sucks and wastes of space. We made owning and maintaining a lawn easier by the invention of sprinklers and mechanized mower.