The timeout is only a stand-in for the generic need to be able to cancel an acceptance loop. You could just as well want to cancel accept() when SIGINT/SIGTERM/

The timeout is only a stand-in for the generic need to be able to cancel an acceptance loop. You could just as well want to cancel accept() when SIGINT/SIGTERM/etc is received, or when recreating the server socket, e.g. in response to a configuration change. Most server processes have a need like this.