Not having a lockdown would not have avoided economic devastation.

As pretty much every data point shows, in the US, the drastic drop off of economic activity happened well before the actual lockdowns. States saw drops in economic activity in the days leading to lockdowns that was 80-90% as much as the drop that happened during the lockdown.

So the trade off wasn’t COVID deaths and a better economy, vs fewer COVID deaths and a worse economy. The trade off was a lot of COVID deaths, potentially triggering devastating cliffs, and a terrible economy, or fewer COVID deaths, and a slightly more terrible economy.