I'm sorry I didn't clarify, but obviously some level of lower severity would be a social win. If cornona was only as severe as a flu or a cold, we wouldn't have lockdowns.
Determining that it is only severe as the flu will take time and the flu is not a monolithic entity. Beyond that, even if rationally it is no worse than the flu, there is going to be a non-trivial segment of people and their elected representatives that are going to demand we contain COVID spread even if the cost outweighs the benefits in the opinion of many others.