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I purposely left out the discussion of Power Management features because it's largely irrelevant.
"Waste cycles" in this context, means "when you have your computer powered on and you're browsing the web or writing something in a document, the rest of your CPU power that you are not utilizing goes toward the science of your choice". While yes, many modern CPUs can turn off unused cores and throttle down the CPU, "waste" still means unused while the computer is used. Sure, there will be more "waste" donating it to science than to let it throttle down, but that's largely negligible by comparison to simply leaving it on all the time, 24/7.
Creating farms or leaving your computer on 24/7 goes above and beyond what the BOINC or any science project asks for. Its largely your choice if you wish to donate the extra, but not what is asked of you.
Ultimately, the goal is still to use the "spare" cycles when you happen to have your computer powered on and in use, regardless of power saving features. Most people simply turn off their machines when not in use, thus saving far more than the power saving features would provide.
Creating clusters is just far above and beyond the scope and intent of BOINC in terms of cost. The goal is in the theory of the idea that all the spare power in the world is more powerful than even the most expensive and powerful super computers.
If clusters were part of the original idea to get as much work done, then the scientists could simply request time (in exchange for pay) on one of those aforementioned "most powerful super computers" without the need for distributed computing, which is what most of those super computers are built for in the first place. | 
