Regarding something like your rotator cup issue: it's not simply a question of doing no treatment (you just having a painful shoulder) vs. having your surgery.

Regarding something like your rotator cup issue: it's not simply a question of doing no treatment (you just having a painful shoulder) vs. having your surgery. It is more does having your rotator cup surgery and associated post-op rehab statistically work better than having a "sham" placebo surgery and doing the associated post-op rehab. People can begin to feel better after having placebo surgeries where nothing was actually repaired. Below is a study seeking to measure the efficacy of rotator cuff surgeries. The point is that even this surgery, which I think you had performed and were happy with, does not necessarily have clear, proven efficacy vs. a placebo surgery. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6530362/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6530362/