Does it matter though? The answer certainly depends on the context of the question: do we just want to assess the risks more precisely than the dead/alive boolean? No, it doesn't matter. Do we want to increase humanity's knowledge about how the virus affects our bodies? Yes, absolutely, if it's worse than standard damage of respirator episodes we'll want to know the "mechanisms" that we causing that extra damage.

If we’re being asked to give up our way of life, keep children out of school, damage mental health, give up essential freedoms.

Then yes, I’d like to see it compared to existing diseases we’ve been living normally alongside for centuries!

It's not (just) a matter of whether or not Covid is worse than other serious illnesses. It's that whatever existed already, Covid adds on top of that. So if there were X people that experienced significant health problems before, now there are X + Covid.