Good question. Of course you can make the same argument about bandwidth, the question is whether you want to make such an argument. If you are building a syste

Good question. Of course you can make the same argument about bandwidth, the question is whether you want to make such an argument. If you are building a system whose purpose is to transfer data (e.g. a router), every second that system is "computing" and not "transfering" you are paying for Watts that aren't doing anything useful. A supercomputer purpose is to compute stuff, not to move data around, so making that argument about a supercomputer doesn't make much sense because nobody cares whether the supercomputer is using all its bandwidth or not as long as its using all of its compute capabilities. So that's like making the argument that everything that isn't a plane, well, isn't a plane. Sure, my guitar isn't a plane, but it is not the purpose of my guitar to be one :D