Excess mortally it's still higher than baseline pre pandenic (though much better than a year ago, but it gets hard to measure over time).

The new variants are less severe but this isn't just some accounting shell game.

It's like if a person gets shot and goes to the hospital, their lung collapses and they bleed out. You might say they died with bullet holes but not from bullet holes, but that's asinine.

Covid exacerbates medical issues, it causes others. It's impossible to separate the illness from the symptoms.

Anpther example, a diabetic might get Covid then go to the hospital because it made their symptoms worse, or they might be at the hospital and Covid stresses their system pushing them over the edge. You'd can't prove they wouldn't have died without it, nor was it the only cause of death. You just know they had Covid and died. Maybe that's exactly what you're dismissing, but you can't dismiss it without looking at all cause mortality too.

Edit: Just take precautions commensurate with your risk. Its better but not gone.