[vlovich123]

Monitoring Wi-Fi signals is, afaik, something that happens on the Wi-Fi chip itself, not the CPU.

While you’re correct that nothing stays truly idle, the modern design is that the main CPU really does stay largely idle because of the power costs involved and instead dedicated microprocessors absorb the load when possible.

[alxhill]

Sure, but most modern OSes would inform the user when the WiFi connection dies - so there's something happening on the CPU too.

[vlovich123]

On a state change, sure. But you're not frequently gaining & losing WiFi access.