Exactly and a narrative that often gets left out of these conversations.
Deterrent they are not!
Various disarmament treaties have never gone far enough - INF Treaty (1987) and START I (1991) and START 2 (2003 I think).
Remember that the US withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019 under president Donald Trump!!
Why have they not resulted in the eradication of nuclear weapons.... in the US the arms industry have lobbied, bribed, lied and cajoled to force the US to keep weapons while Russia.. well, under Putin have always been bad actors.