Why are load averages on macOS always over 1.0
My load averages are routinely 0.29 so we would need to look at your build and details to know why you’re over 1.0.
bmike@dev ~ % iostat 10
              disk0       cpu    load average
    KB/t  tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   12.20    7  0.08   0  0 99  0.13 0.16 0.18
    5.23    9  0.04   0  0 100  0.11 0.15 0.18
    5.18    2  0.01   0  1 99  0.10 0.15 0.18
    0.00    0  0.00   0  0 100  0.08 0.14 0.17
    0.00    0  0.00   0  0 100  0.07 0.14 0.17

The code that became macOS code measures relative task scheduling as opposed to core loading which is different than Linux I suppose. You will want to recalibrate your scripts if you take action upon this measure.

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/Mach/Mach.html
http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&amp;sid=20090715034920

Asking why is tough since engineers committed the code and it shipped. Im not entirely sure if this is a BSD thing as much as Mach kernel, but it’s real on macOS.