Can we get this more in the direction thatclose() is the explicit way to deregister a figure from pyplot? I want to prevent the implication that every figure() must be paired with close(). Closing a figure window that was created using show() also deregisters the figure from pyplot and hence close() is not needed in that usage scenario.

Something like

pyplot maintains a reference to figures created withfigure(). When work on the figure is completed, it should be closed, i.e. deregistered from pyplot, to free its memory (see also :rc:figure.max_open_warning).
Closing a figure window created byshow() automatically deregisters the figure. For all other use cases, most prominentlysavefig() withoutshow(), the figure must be deregistered explicitly usingclose().

sure, done