My sense is that people choose to weather currently-net-negative lives for at least two reasons that they might endorse on reflection:
The negative parts of their life may be solvable, such that the EV of their future is plausibly positive
Ending their life has a few terrible externalities, e.g. the impact it would have on their close loved ones
Eliminating those considerations, I would expect the bar for World Z to be much better than the worst lives people reflectively consider worth living today.
My sense is that people choose to weather currently-net-negative lives for at least two reasons that they might endorse on reflection:
The negative parts of their life may be solvable, such that the EV of their future is plausibly positive
Ending their life has a few terrible externalities, e.g. the impact it would have on their close loved ones
Eliminating those considerations, I would expect the bar for World Z to be much better than the worst lives people reflectively consider worth living today.