Dirty dishes can be stored inside or outside the dishwasher. I wouldn’t even consider running a dishwasher at less than ~75% load, unless very unusual circumstances.
Which is why I, as a single household, don’t use mine.
I agree that I won't run it unless mostly full or special circumstances (going to cook a lot or have lots of people over) but I don't understand how small households don't use the dishwasher! Assuming you are eating most meals at home we (2 people) run the dishwasher about daily on average. Between pots, pans, food containers and plates I find it full up quickly. I think people who don't use it are just afraid to put cookware inside. Except for a few particular items you can get almost everything dishwasher-safe these days.
And even if you do have a period between cooking where it does sit for a few days running a dishwasher even a quarter full uses less water, power and soap than washing by hand. So doing that occasionally if it is starting to smell isn't an issue.
Two person house here, I just wash the dishes by hand. It doesn't take much effort, just a few minutes after a meal, they always come out exactly as clean as I want, and you can wash the dishes you prepped with while you cook (as long as it isn't an attention-intensive dish). It's also is friendlier to our painted ceramic bowls we usually eat out of.
Dish washers didn't seem worth it for two people in my opinion, either the dishes built up inside it and food dries on them to the point where the dishwasher didn't clean them properly, or I ran the washer with hardly anything inside it and felt like I wasted a lot of soap and water. Maybe it was simply too big of a dishwasher and that was part of the problem.
We had a high end home rental for a vacation a few years ago that had multiple dishwashers that were just being used as cabinets! It creates a whole new set of clean/dirty problems.
Which is why I, as a single household, don’t use mine.