I think the problem is that the chinese lockdown worked. The west all had pandemic plans that looked like what Sweden did, but most other countries political leadership panicked when they saw all the short term supply gluts in medicines, health care and PPE. I don't really blame them, I think they are just the wrong people for the job of deciding what to do in a crisis they have no education about or prior experience of which to base their decisions on, and it is really weird to put a group of doctors and epidemiologists in charge of something with such broad ramifications on the economy, society and life as a whole.
The reason Sweden went pretty much solo on the no-lockdown strategy was because the political class was afraid to act against the expert authorities suggestions. This isn't ideal either, because to have or not to have a lockdown is very much a political decision.
Also I think that theres a misconception about what we did that lives on and is spread around the world. It's not like if we didnt do anything. Mobile tracking data suggests a greater or as great reduction in travel between regions in the no-lockdown Sweden than similar european countries that had lockdowns. People were told in no unclear terms not to do unnecesary travel, to avoid crowded commuter buses/trains, to grocery shop alone and not as often, avoid meeting people they didnt need to, to work from home whenever possible etc, and we did, by our own choice, for the most part. That part worked well.
Half our fatalities are in nursing homes which generally house around 1.5% our population, they were a death trap, and they were before the pandemic as well, and unless changes are made they will be after the pandemic as well, but not because of covid19.