That's why the different between the neutralizing antibodies and T cells is so important: when the pandemic is raging, your odds of exposure are high and so public health people are concerned about the ability of vaccinated individuals to slow the spread impacting the entire healthcare system. The medical system is under levels of stress which haven't been seen in a century so they're understandably focused on trying all of the tools available to calm things down.

Once it's spreading at a lower level, your risk of personal exposure is much lower and the long-lasting T cell response becomes more of a focus because that reduces risk to the person and you're less worried about the crunch of many thousands of people showing up at the hospital at the same time because for someone vaccinated it's more like something like influenza where most people have a bad week or two but don't urgently need medical treatment.