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Not to puttoo fine a. Point on it but there is a bypass of sorts.....your right foot. Having owned several turbo cars and also their normally aspirated brothers, the nonturbo versions in every case had more usable torque under 2000 rpm than the rurbo cars did. Above 2k, the turbo cars would run circles around their na brothers. My feeling is the turbo costs about 2 to 3% fuel economy for performance sake. Even if you could bypass the turbo, the lower static compression of the turbo engine would have a negative impact on fuel economy and bottom end torque. So while you can be gentle with the right foot and largely stay out of the boost except for long steep hills, there is a penalty paid for having that hardware.
Another sonsideration is cam timing. Most gas turbo cars use a milder camm grind than their higher compression na brothers. Bottom line is the laws of physics remain in force. The so called free energy driving the turbo is a mechanical load imposed on the engine as a pumping loss on the exhaust side. I guess there really is no such thing as a free lunch.
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