I have a question from page 959 in Electronic Principles by Albert Malvino regarding a series regulator. I attached an image to better illustrate my question.

The book states that the operation of the series regulator can be improved
by using a darlington connection for the pass transistor. The Darlington
connection allows us to use larger values of R1 to R4 to improve efficiency.
(Refer to image 1).

Is the idea behind this that efficiency is increased with the Darlington
because less current is needed in the branches (with the exception of load
current)?

 

Yes, a Darlington requires perhaps a factor of 100 less base current for a given emitter current.