For the people I travel with, the wheelchair is needed if there is a significant distance, anything more than 100 meters or so. Imagine you are flying MIA-MCI, which is a regular flight for my family. At MIA, a wheelchair is needed because of the significant distances from check-in to the correct TSA line to the Admirals Club and then to the gate. This can easily total 1000 meters. The MIA peeps also do NOT provide an electric cart for disabled pax, only for the fee-for-service Five Star customers. So the wheelchair is the only option.

After gate arrival, the wheelchair is not needed for the short walk down the jetbridge during preboard, so the assistant is tipped and departs. Wheelchairs are not cluttering the area, they are sorted by the vendor. It's actually one of the few things that operates reasonably well at many airports (not all).

At MCI, especially after sitting for three hours on a flight, no wheelchair is needed: the distance from the jetbridge door to the terminal door (and a waiting Uber) is about 30 meters.