Actually being forced to watch is a part of the point, but its different.

An nsfw tag is also a low-key communication device for the reader to take whatever it is with extra sense of seriousness or caution. In other words to treat it as separate in some way, depending on the post contents, from the rest of the shitposts and daily guff we post.

Its important to distinguish things like this, even if the news doesn't. We can build up our own humanity and care for each other here. Remind ourselves and each other that theres very real loss in these instances. Its not just another piece of entertainment, or ragetainment for the 'feed', events like this should cut through, and nsfw tags can be employed to position the post to cut differently.

Nsfw shouldn't be thought of as just the 'woke police', but a layer of the communication of the post itself.