I'm Australian, and It's up for argument about how necessary isolation was, but it definitely had a positive impact on transmission of the disease and covid deaths. I know for me, while I was not at high risk from covid, it helped people that I knew were immunocompromised. But the isolation had me in the worst depressive state I ever was in, combined with losing my job, 2020/2021 were some of the most terrifying and horrific parts of my life. I know a few people who died of covid too, so it wasn't this casual sickness.

I'm glad you had a good time during it, I just think it's an unpopular opinion describing it as some of the best years, because that's dismissive of a huge amount of people who suffered hard.