Look, I agree with the general gist of what you're saying - there most certainly is a morbid equation at play. It's clear that different societies have different calibrations though, and the OP describing the lockdowns as "insanity" does nothing to capture the nuance of the situation.

With the benefit of hindsight, my viewpoint is that the optimal response was early and aggressive suppression, followed by swift mass vaccinations, followed by an acceptance that the virus will be endemic and a subsequent 'opening up'. Australia failed on the vaccination rollout front, US failed on early suppression, etc.