Why is the online channel of the network binding a Switch?

This is more out of curiosity, not having any technical difficulties, but I was wondering why the network binding shows the online status of a network device as a switch?
Maybe I understood it wrong but I don’t think it is able to switch a device on or off

A Switch item type provides two states - ON and OFF, which match the two possible states of an Network’s “Online” status.

If you don’t want it to display like a Switch in your Sitemap, you can specify it as a Text item, and even use a Mapping to display the text ON/OFF instead of the toggle switch.

Gary, Thanks, I know about mapping and that a switch has two states. But my bewonderment was that a switch suggest you can switch on and off, which isnt the case. I would have expected a contact