That wasn’t the only justification! The hope was also that by preventing such ‘overwhelming’, net lives would be saved – whether just by keeping those other no

That wasn’t the only justification! The hope was also that by preventing such ‘overwhelming’, net lives would be saved – whether just by keeping those other non-COVID medical services available, or also by delaying COVID cases to later when knowledge or capacity would allow better treatment. If you believe this meta-analysis, even that capacity-sparing aspect showed very little effect on total deaths.