Counterpoint: exercising and increasing your VO2 max reduces your *all cause* mortality by *5x*, which is wild. There’s a great discussion in this video (aimed at cyclists, not runners, but the point still applies): https://youtu.be/eMMf9inNSkw?si=Ig5dQtfAcCcKWtnw
Analysis of the 2018 study with this result: https://peterattiamd.com/how-does-vo2-max-correlate-with-longevity/