Currently Special Prices on Configurable Products show only after a customer clicks on a color/size. Special pricing is not displayed on Grids or Product Pages until after options are chosen (strikethrough regular price next to new price). Only the regular price shows until after the options are chosen. Magento Support confirms that this is default behavior.
I would like for my site to function in this regard like all other M2 sites that have products on sale (sale price is shown on product grids and on product pages - without first choosing attributes). I literally can not find one M2 site that does not show sale prices on the grids or the product pages (before options are chosen).
M2 sites like Le Creuset demonstrate the logical behavior I'm describing: https://www.lecreuset.com/special s
If this is functionality that all Magento 2 customers are having to pay developers to fix/customize, I would suggest that it is something that Magento should add to its core functionality.