Italy, Spain and Switzerland were hit when nobody even knew what the virus was. By the time politics started to put measures into place, deaths already were starting to pile up. Sweden and other nations had time to prepare some kind of strategy, so I would put that gained time into equation as well. That's why the comparison to the neighbours is more appropriate. Also, their neighbours will have also more similar social patterns - and it's exactly on the social patterns that the whose Swedish strategy was built. What works for Sweden doesn't for others: you can't compare the human interactions in Stockholm with the interactions in Mallorca, so how could you even think to compare their approaches?