If I no longer believe I need my home water softener, is unplugging it sufficient?

Or do I need to leave it plugged in and turn it off until I know for sure? And then uninstall it?

I was drawing water from a sand point when the water softener was installed. Now I have a rural water line.

The water softener makes quite a bit of noise and wastes water if it’s unnecessary. I unplugged the softener, but since then the dish washer has been leaving white deposits on some dishes and silver. The deposits could be coincidental. Or not.

I don’t have a problem running the water softener, but I don’t want to waste energy and resources unnecessarily.