More like:
There is zero advantage to having gate conditionals to turn on or off steam engines because the boiler is producing steam despite any demand for power or not. So there's really no reason to turn OFF the engines, because the fuel is being constantly consumed whether or not you use the steam output or not. So, since my machines require constant input of energy despite working or not, I might as well build enough engines to keep everything running, set up the automation, then just walk away and never touch the system again.
I always thought it'd be nice if no steam is consumed from the boiler and the internal capacity fills up, the boiler automatically uses less fuel. not saying the boiler wouldn't use any fuel at all, just less fuel