Interesting grass comments from people in massively different climates. Here (Ontario, so north of Northeast US) we have cold winters with snow, so grass is dormant and buried. Grass grows like mad spring and fall when there is lots of water. Some summers are wet and grass stays green all summer. Some summers are dry and grass goes dormant, unless you water. I am rural, on a well with a septic tank and leach field. I don't water because that would use well water, I don't want to stress my aquifer. Since I don't water and I don't weed except for nasties (burdock, thistles, wild parsnip), I have a greenish lawn in dry summers. I cut the grass at the highest setting so it is fairly long, and long grass means deeper roots that survive dry times better. I don't use fertilizer, I let the clippings decompose. I don't use herbicides unless there is no other way to get rid of a plant. I don't use insecticides, I value my pollinators. The lawn looks decent. If I don't cut my grass I am providing a haven for ticks. Lyme disease is closing in on us, I don't want ticks. If I really leave the lawn alone I will soon have a forest.
Where corn can be grown without irrigation there is plenty of water for grasses, since corn is a tall grass. In drier areas you get a mix of tall and short grasses. In even drier areas the native grasses are short grasses - so a native grass (a sod forming grass, not a bunch grass) will make lawn. Drier than that, xeriscape.
Lawns are made up of plants - they are good or bad like any other domesticated plant. People can use masses of fertilizers and pesticides and energy on other types of gardens or use very little. It depends on local conditions and the style of gardening.