Does async/await create a new thread in .NET?

In production, this distinction stops Task.Run from becoming a wrapper around every repository or HTTP call. Truly asynchronous sockets, file operations, and database drivers release thread-pool capacity while they wait; a synchronous dependency wrapped in Task.Run still occupies a worker. I either replace that dependency, isolate it behind bounded concurrency, or accept its blocking cost explicitly. Runtime counters for worker count, queue length, dependency latency, and active operations show whether the design is preserving capacity or only moving the blockage.