If you compare Italy and South Korea, I think you can see why governments are going for the quarantine approach.
In Italy they initially took a relatively light approach to restrictions and the result was the Northern Italy's hospitals were quickly overwhelmed by cases. This has the effect of not just meaning increased mortality amongst covid-19 sufferers but also all the other patients who would usually be using those hospital facilities.
In south Korea they seem to have had a much more draconian response (after the initial surge of cases) and as a result have got the rate of increase under control, allowing the more serious cases to be better treated.
The difference in mortality rate between these two countries is stark, and whilst there are other factors (demographic ones) in play, it seems fair to say that gov. response plays a role.
The other argument for a stronger response is the longer this goes the more likely effective treatments will be developed/validated, reducing mortality.
South Korea is not forcing at-home quarantine for everyone. Italy is.
South Korea's success is all about their widespread testing.
The difference in mortality rate is because South Korea knows how many people have it, and Italy has no clue. Which, again, is because of testing, not quarantine.
South Korea has a load of infrastructure built up after SARS/MERS, no-one in Europe does, The option of "test/track all the people" is not on the table in Europe.
Heck the UK, who's response I gather you favour, are cutting the sets of people they test, not increasing them.
In Italy they initially took a relatively light approach to restrictions and the result was the Northern Italy's hospitals were quickly overwhelmed by cases. This has the effect of not just meaning increased mortality amongst covid-19 sufferers but also all the other patients who would usually be using those hospital facilities.
In south Korea they seem to have had a much more draconian response (after the initial surge of cases) and as a result have got the rate of increase under control, allowing the more serious cases to be better treated.
The difference in mortality rate between these two countries is stark, and whilst there are other factors (demographic ones) in play, it seems fair to say that gov. response plays a role.
The other argument for a stronger response is the longer this goes the more likely effective treatments will be developed/validated, reducing mortality.