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A warm engine is indeed an efficient engine, but it's my understanding that high-idle is primarily used to get the catalytic converter up to operating temperature quickly, for emissions reasons.
There are people on the Prius forum that spoof the ECU into thinking the engine is already at operating temperature. Not only is the fast-idle eliminated, but the engine is then allowed to shut off at stops, which it normally doesn't do until operating temperature is reached.
I don't know if spoofing the temperature sensor would cause premature wear on components like the cat, or just how awful the emissions are for the environment, but it would certainly reduce overall fuel consumption. I'd be tempted to perform this mod, but so far I've just shortened the amount of time it takes to warm up the engine by grill blocking.
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