I can't believe a year into this people still don't fucking get it.
If hospitals were already full, and this happened, they would be fully overrun, so they put mitigation restrictions in place. If everything was left wide open, we would need to triage who gets icu care and who dies, and no one should ever be put in a place to have to make that decision.
Put yourself in this situation.
Hospitals are full.
Your 70 year old mom has Covid, and is in rough shape taking up an ICU bed. An 8 year old has just been in a car accident, and is internally bleeding. You are asked to decide if you should pull the plug on your mom, or let a child die. The kids parents are begging you. Do you want to make that choice?