True, but "potential deaths" leads you down some pretty weird rabbit holes. Also, you have to answer the question what's the right timeline to optimize for the

True, but "potential deaths" leads you down some pretty weird rabbit holes. Also, you have to answer the question what's the right timeline to optimize for then? For example, centralizing power makes the federal government a more tempting target for authoritarians in the long term (next 100 years). Given the death statistics of previous authoritarian (from both internal violence and wars), you're probably looking at millions of deaths. Centralizing power is also what makes the modern social safety net and regulatory regime possible. Are the thousands of lives saved by those systems every year worth a low chance at a much larger number of deaths? (rhetorical question, there probably isn't an objective answer to that)