I appreciate your viewpoint, your garden looks great, but that short grass is a barren wasteland for biodiversity. You have to work out what’s important for you, and all sides should respect that decision.
It would be possible to maintain some of it as a native wildflower meadow instead, and keep the overall length managed without using weed killers and poisons and huge amounts of water like grass requires. There’s no such thing as a native weed, but you do have to remove some individuals for diversity and soil health if they grow too large. I do this with brambles and other large light blocking species, as I don’t have the space to support them, even though they’re great for wildlife, they end up having a short term negative biodiversity impact in a small space. Even a small corner or container of native wildflower would support native pollinators and vastly improve the health and biodiversity of your entire garden. Get a solitary bee hotel, if they exist in your country. Leave a pile of sticks/logs somewhere for insects. Get a pond if you can. You already compost so that’s good. Nature isn’t meant to be tidy, neat or uniform. But I understand that not everybody can appreciate the value that could be gained from millions of gardens improving thier biodiversity, and that conforming with others and past practices and traditions may be a stronger factor for some people to want to keep their gardens neat. You’re clearly a good gardener, but no wildlife conservationist, you can have both though. It’s not about being intentionally messy, it’s about creating conditions for wildlife to be invited in. Those fully overgrown gardens are probably great for nature, but you are right that they have to consider the size of the space and the proximity of neighbours before doing that, and not being considerate of that can make them a bit of an asshole.
More powerful AI says:
No, not all lettuces are the same species, although many commonly consumed lettuces (e.g., iceberg, romaine, butterhead, oakleaf, and leaf lettuce) belong to the same species, Lactuca sativa.
However, some plants commonly called “lettuce” belong to different species or even genera. Examples include:
Lactuca sativa: The typical garden lettuce varieties (iceberg, romaine, butterhead, oakleaf, loose-leaf lettuces).
Lactuca serriola: Wild lettuce, an ancestor to cultivated lettuce.
Valerianella locusta: Corn salad or lamb’s lettuce, commonly consumed as lettuce but from a different genus.
Cichorium endivia: Endive, sometimes called lettuce but technically not in the lettuce genus (Lactuca).
Eruca vesicaria (Arugula or rocket): Often mixed with lettuces but belongs to an entirely different genus and family.
In summary, while most common lettuces belong to a single species (Lactuca sativa), not everything commonly called lettuce or used similarly in salads is botanically the same species or even genus.