There’s a few things about that but it comes down to an industry wide shift that’s happening about energy efficiency.

Efficiency is important. CPUs (but also tech) are using far more power faster than ever before. Thankfully efficiency has (mostly sorta) caught up. We are now running into a point where it isn’t and we’re seeing diminishing returns at peak power draw.

Obviously gross energy usage is a concern but there’s some finer details you’re missing here:

Here’s a few scatterbrained points:

1. What happens to your $700 CPU when your power bill suddenly skyrockets? If you live in Europe this has become a very real reality now and the transient shakes of the energy market will keep this threat alive for years to come. Energy efficiency suddenly became a lot more important to Europeans these last two years. If you live in the Southwest US you’ll likely see this before decade’s end because of the drought we’ve been in. If you live in the Southwest US you are not going to have reliable power forever and you need to start preparing now.
2. What happens to your $700 CPU when you are no longer able to reliably power it from the wall through continuous loads? This is a real reality for a lot of gamers in Latin America and Africa. UPS power is often filtered and fine but you’re still reliant on the power coming into your house from the start. If you can’t draw a full load from your PSU without flipping breakers then lowering your total power draw is the goal.
3. Efficiency is important for performance. More efficient CPU use less power and thus give off less heat. That’s more room for cooling and more room for efficient performance.
4. Your last line there is hyperbole. I have my 5800X3D undertunes and my 7900 XTX undervolted. I care about performance and I care about my energy usage. Actually, the two go hand and hand more and more lately. I think you’d be surprised to see how many people think this in the enthusiast space.

You’re right in that the power savings maybe matter a little less in the enthusiast performance market space. However, they still matter.

It’s not like a car where using the whole Tachyometer is always a good thing.

I’m all for using technology how the user intends but we’re dealing with products that are made for a variety of intents and situations on a scale where any small change is meaningful.