What we have seen is a lot of older people require hospital treatment for this, and some will die.
When the hospital capacity is overwhelmed in an area the death rate grows sharply (and there is also probably a knock on effect on unrelated illness not being able to access healthcare). Therefore by taking action to slow the spread of the disease you can save many lives. Even if the same number of people get it in the end, if you slow the spread so hospitals aren't overrun there are much better outcomes