I actually had someone whose family member died of Covid tell me that his brother-in-law didn’t really die of Covid, he died of something else, because it’s all overblown and the hospitals are doing a similar scam to this myth (i.e. making it out as a bigger deal than it needs to be.)

That sort of thing goes around here a lot too, usually framed in terms of "He didn't die of COVID, but if you die from any cause whatsoever while you also have COVID they'll count it as dying of COVID to make the COVID numbers bigger." It usually falls apart when you ask why they want the COVID numbers to be bigger than they really are.