@Quinn,
use case for maintaining a TCP connection with optional receive:
Unix serial terminal server is a TCP endpoint with one media transition point (Ethernet->Serial) per port.
The terminal server transmits data received via TCP to the terminal via a serial interface. The terminal user may or may not type a reply, the connection to terminal server should is expected be maintained. The user may at some point send a command from the terminal which needs to be received by the NWConnection.