I would suppose the world's obsession would be seeing a lot of people dying and thinking in a perhaps mistaken way "that seems unnecessary" and then being upset enough by this idea to not think as highly of the Swedish government as it might otherwise wish people to think of it.
A lot of course being in the eye of the beholder.
I think that seems a less cynical and perhaps simpler explanation for why people would be obsessed with Sweden.
Let me try to rephrase it in a less cynical manner, best as I can.
It seems to me that Sweden's strategy is attracting more attention (in form of primarily criticism) than f.x. Belgium's, despite the latters deathrate being ~2x that of Sweden's. To me that indicates that the issue is the strategy in itself, and not the magnitude of the failure of it. Other countries have failed worse (although thankfully the vast majority of countries are currently doing better than Sweden, hopefully forever). Why would people care about 4000 dead in a small country far away, when many don't give a damn when 4000 people die from starvation or malnurishment?
Because it says something about _your_ country and _your_ strategy.
For me that is the simplest and not at all cynical interpretation of this. I will admit this is speculation, but I don't think I claimed certainty.
PS. I'm _guessing_ our Achilles tendon is certain organisational deficiancies in the care of the elderly. How it's done and at what stages of life one is moved between different kinds of care. Even if I'm right (big if) I fear that the outfall from this might be "me caveman gruk, weak restrictions bad for COVID19, dum-dum-donut", or the equivalent opposit. That would be sad. PS.
PSS. Belgium seems to be the most "liberal" country in terms of including suspected COVID19-related deaths in the official statistics, but those are the numbers at our disposal. DSS.
Maybe but I think in the case of media attention on the strategy - I'm sure you're aware of the saying that man bites dog is news and dog bites man isn't. Sweden is trying a notably different strategy than most everyone else - that makes it newsworthy.
Then there is another saying - if it bleeds it leads. Sweden has a high percentage of deaths in comparison to a lot of other countries. Two uncommon things make interesting news in the media's calculation - now what story to construct about these uncommon things. The story is pretty obvious given the parameters.
A lot of course being in the eye of the beholder.
I think that seems a less cynical and perhaps simpler explanation for why people would be obsessed with Sweden.