Have you read the article?

"The difference in 2022 - compared with 2020 and 2021 - is that Covid deaths were one of several factors, rather than the main explanation for this excess"

One of the other factors is the crisis in the NHS:

"At the start of 2022, death rates were looking like they'd returned to pre-pandemic levels. It wasn't until June that excess deaths really started to rise - just as the number of people waiting for hours on trolleys in English hospitals hit levels normally seen in winter."

So, I don't think people's propensity to go into lockdown is particularly relevant here.