Once my monitors are in powersave, I usually nudge the mouse (or hit the control key since that can't do any damage) to force it out of powersave. I expect my PC to be right where I left it. The shield is not where I left it.

Try ESC. Or ENTER. (but see below, anyway).

Just starting to type a password is not the answer. Sure, that may be a great shortcut for some people, but it's not obvious that's what I should do when I see the shield.

(drag away a useless shield - because let's face it, it *is* useless)

given that it serves no purpose

What you should do when you see the shield is look at the notifications and decide *if you really need to login/type-your-password*. So, I disagree. It isn't useless. It serves a purpose. (but If you don't use/like it, it's ok, just type your password - or hit one of the keys said above).

And I use lots of computers with lots of operating systems every day, so having to do something different on only this one.

and is a different behavior than every other computer I have ever used (including most Linux until recently).

Really, really, really not sure of this "GS Is The Only One Different" claim.
But, you know, even if really different: different isn't worse. Different is Different. Different can be better.