While I don't disagree with your conclusion, you fail to pick up that the key factor in all of this is government support. The USA's CARES Act provided a level of support for airlines provided they didn't furlough. That expired in October and so now the cash tap has been turned off, you'll see the US carriers now really start to pull things back where they can, while also grabbing the opportunity to make some cash where there is opportunity to do so. By comparison, China is subsidising their carriers to the hilt, Air NZ has been drawing on a government loan, and Korea has also helped to provide assistance to some carriers.
Government support is essential for the airline sector to survive whilst pandemic control measures are in place and then regrow once the control measures have been lifted. I wish our federal governmetn was doing far more for our aviation sector.
But the main part of my argument was to debunk the notion that if we just dropped all controls and essentially turn a blind eye to the virus then everything would get back to normal. As the US has shown this is not the case.