Excess deaths is the only fair comparison that accounts for different ways of attributing potential multiple-cause deaths. That's why we use it for the flu. Of course it still has the problem of counting deferred treatments for other ailments due to fear and/or lockdowns.
Cases is bad because it depends so much on testing, though similar economies can be somewhat compared.
Deaths / million is better, though the cause-of-death problem is hard to calibrate, especially when there are financial incentives to attribute to covid.
While the US hasn't done well in deaths/million, it's not like we don't have some company:
Peru 1,014, Belgium 877, Bolivia 704, Brazil 690, Chile 684, Spain 684, Ecuador 669, United Kingdom 633
The fact that we ended up near the UK doesn't surprise me at all given the cultural similarity. Sometimes it is better to live in a top-down rule following society like Singapore or Germany. I wore my mask, but understand we constitutionally can't enforce that, nor can we tell people they can't hold mass protests.
Personally I'd rather live in the US even if that means a 0.06% incremental death risk, but to each their own. We even get to choose what state to live in, so you can choose between endless lockdown and careless (but more dangerous) policies if you care enough.