Always remember that policy universally is promoted to further the agenda of a given party! Many republican politicians opt for the abolition of early/absentee voting, and democrats the opposite. Bear in mind that these policies are not just ideological rhetoric, but political play, intended to benefit the ruling party rather than the wider people.
I’m sorry your grandpa died, and it was heartbreaking that some people died apart from their families. I believe they changed the restrictions in the UK to allow terminal patients to have visitors by 2021. But if they hadn’t restricted visits to hospitals and nursing homes, so many more elderly and ill people would have died from covid - and not just the people who opted to take the risk and see their family. It was an awful time for everyone whether you died or lost someone, had to shield, missed crucial time at school, lost your job or your business, had to continue to work on the front lines, or even just had to follow the lockdown rules. But I don’t think any of the precautions taken at the time were done so lightly or heavy-handedly considering the uncertainty at the time.