I don't understand the programmer's obsession with having as much screen as possible. Is dividing up your attention span with 8+ windows open at one time really

I don't understand the programmer's obsession with having as much screen as possible. Is dividing up your attention span with 8+ windows open at one time really helping you to work better? I prefer to have at most 3 windows visible at one time. Workspaces, alt-tab, etc. were invented for a reason.