In reply to Julie.

The save button in the old mode just triggered an autosave. Since then, WordPress also added logged-out handling, local autosaves in the browser, intermittent connection notices, and such. It's nice for peace of mind but it was basically a placebo, and newer features made the idea of "saving" anything even less important to keep.

Want something even less distracting? Try Command-S (Control-S on Windows) to trigger the same autosave. WordPress has supported that for years, and it's probably what you do in most applications. (I can't remember when the last time I clicked "Save" in a menu.)