I think it’s great that you did this analysis. There’s a strong tendency, including among many health economists and rationalists, to want to use one single metric to cover everything that matters and aggregate all the data to get a single number (utility, wellbeing, suffering...). This makes it much easier to make decisions, since you’re just comparing potential outcomes based on single numbers. The problem is that not everything can be added together in a way that is both meaningful and non-arbitrary, even if you introduce different weightings. In this case, while aggregating different intensities of suffering to get a single number can simplify things, it loses critical information. So focusing on something more narrowly defined and maintaining a degree of granularity in the analysis ensures that the worst suffering isn’t neglected against a background of more widespread but less intense suffering.
I think it’s great that you did this analysis. There’s a strong tendency, including among many health economists and rationalists, to want to use one single metric to cover everything that matters and aggregate all the data to get a single number (utility, wellbeing, suffering...). This makes it much easier to make decisions, since you’re just comparing potential outcomes based on single numbers. The problem is that not everything can be added together in a way that is both meaningful and non-arbitrary, even if you introduce different weightings. In this case, while aggregating different intensities of suffering to get a single number can simplify things, it loses critical information. So focusing on something more narrowly defined and maintaining a degree of granularity in the analysis ensures that the worst suffering isn’t neglected against a background of more widespread but less intense suffering.