Think about it this way. Money is people's time. SBF stole billions of hours of people's personal time. Effort, savings, sweat, tears all bundled in what we call money. Why shouldn't he repay them with his own time in jail?

That doesn't really repay them anything.

What happens if they money was someone else's means to pay for their health care?

Money is made up - that doesn't mean it doesn't have consequences.

As warning, not as victim blaming, I'd like to point out that you should never ever risk money that you can't afford to lose on high-risk investments. Especially not extremely high risk stuff like cryptocurrencies, NFTs and similar scams.

I am of the mindset that non-violent offenders, should not suffer a life penalty regardless of their alleged crime. They played a game and lost, they should not lose their head as well.

A game with whose stakes?

Hear me out, what if we allowed people to access health care regardless of who has how much money?

While your direct point is valid (for the US), you're missing the general point.

Money can be tied to life changing/life threatening events or situations in many more scenarios.

The archetypal scenarios are people losing college money, retirement savings, downpayments for their kid's apartments/houses, etc.

There are many ways in which money is very, very real.

Anyone who still clings to this "fiat" thesis is just detached from human reality.

He stole billions of possible retirement money. Of course he should go to prison for life.

How will wasting his life behind bars help bring restitution?

Making him grind out restitution at $1/hr on hard labor would do it.

Contrary to popular belief, prison is not entirely about reforming people but part punishment as well as protecting society from repeat offenders.

Also, he chose to open himself to the dangers of wasting his life behind bars when he enganged in incredibly illegal activities. It's not hard to not do that.

True. The focus should be as much on rehabilitation and restitution.

DPR is rotting for life, for contracting a hit on an entirely fictional person and mostly conducting a very upstanding market. I never thought that was fair, but US laws are US laws.

I'm not familiar with what you are referring to, however I would argue that attempted assassination <> losing custodial funds.

DPR == Dread Pirate Roberts == Ross Ulbricht (Silk Road operator)

DPR =/= Ross Ulbricht, at least not in reality.

FBI agents who were proven to have access to that handle are also in prison for it. There's no 1:1 "Ross is DPR," and that's part of the problem.